Finial Assisgnment

Tittle: Aspen Treatise for Business Organization

J. Mark Ramseyer

1. Complete: the “How to Complete” assignments for Week 7’s Live Session.

2. Attend: Week 7’s Live Session.

3. Remember: In this assignment, you will have the opportunity to address a common thread woven throughout the entire course on business organizations. Whether a relationship is one of simple agency, a partnership arrangement, or the more complex relationships among owners, directors and managers in corporations, there exist, to one degree or another, fiduciary responsibilities that parties owe to each other. The existence and enforcement of fiduciary duties are necessary for the efficient and effective operation of businesses. Fiduciary duties might be appropriately described as the lubricants that make a business run within an ethical framework.

4. Prepare: an original essay that describes and analyzes fiduciary duties in agency, partnership, and corporation law. This should not be a sterile recitation of the law; rather, this essay should addresses the following questions:

• How do fiduciary duties operate similarly, and how do they differ, among the different organizational forms?
• What are the seminal cases that defined/addressed/interpreted fiduciary duties in each organizational form? Do you agree with the courts reasoning and decisions in these cases? Why or why not?
• As for this particular question (above), you should include discussion of/reference to at least two cases applicable to each of agency, partnership, and corporate areas of law. Do not simply recite facts; rather, use cases to illustrate how the law is developed/applied, and also feel free to set forth your disagreement with a courts views.
• With respect to corporations, frame your discussion within the development of the business judgment rule. Should courts play a larger role in evaluating actions of a board of directors, or should they defer to boards absent an obvious conflict of interest or clear abuse of discretion? Does knowledge by a board that all of their actions are subject to judicial review after the fact make them more effective, or does it inhibit risk taking that they deem to be potentially beneficial to the value of owners stock?

Info: Reputable Sources & Citations

• To support your argument, research reputable sources and provide accurate citations for any statement or proposition that is not your own thought.
• Reputable sources can be found using and could include law review articles, journals, newspapers, etc. Do not heavily rely on blogs or websites.
• If you have any citation questions, refer back to the