Meaning of Commercial Law

Having seen what "law" in general means, this unit now narrows the focus to Commercial Law (also called Mercantile Law) — the specific branch of law this whole two-year syllabus is built around.

Commercial Law is that branch of law which governs the rights, duties, and obligations arising out of mercantile or business transactions — buying and selling goods, entering into contracts, forming partnerships and companies, using cheques and bills of exchange, and so on. It is not a wholly separate legal system of its own; rather, it is ordinary civil law (mostly contract law) applied specifically to the world of trade, commerce, and industry.

Why does trade need its own distinct branch of law at all, rather than relying purely on the general law of contract? Because commercial dealings have their own recurring patterns and needs — speed, certainty, negotiability of instruments like cheques, standard rules for the sale of goods, established customs of particular trades — and a specialised body of law has grown up over time to answer exactly these needs precisely and predictably. This is exactly why the rest of this two-year syllabus is organised the way it is: the Law of Contract (the general foundation), the Sale of Goods Act (a contract-of-sale specific application), the Law of Partnership and Company Law (rules for how a business is organised), Negotiable Instruments (how businesses pay and receive money on credit), and the Law of Insurance (how business risk is managed) are all specific chapters within the wider subject of Commercial Law. …