Corporate and business law Assignment Sample

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Introduction to Corporate and Business Law Assignment

The law is defined as the different kinds of rules and regulations which individuals and organisations must follow within a given environment. In a corporate context, effective compliance with legal requirements is essential to ensure that business operations are conducted ethically and lawfully. Company law in the UK consists of a framework of legal duties, obligations, and responsibilities that organisations are required to adhere to in order to maintain transparency, accountability, and fair practice. Following these laws enhances organisational efficiency and reduces the risk of legal and reputational damage. This report will outline the key elements of obligations and responsibilities under UK company law, with support from Online Assignment Help UK to strengthen academic understanding. It will also evaluate the Barclays LIBOR Scandal as a case study to assess failures in legal responsibility and ethical conduct, discuss the wider societal implications of such corporate misconduct, and provide recommendations for improving accountability and preventing similar scandals in the future.

Main Body

Elements of obligation and responsibility

According to the law, there are certain types of duties and responsibilities which are present and need to be followed by all people well. This is necessary because when the effective type of the duties are listed, then it is helpful to the person in managing their work and trying to attain the working well. This is necessary because when the effective and clear segregation of the duties and roles is implemented, then all the parties have clarity as to what needs to be made and how the work can be improved. It is due to the reason that when the law monitors the working then it improves the working capability well and ultimately the efficiency is improved and better working is implemented (Kostruba, 2021). The fiduciary duty is a type of legal responsibility which acts solely for the interest of the party and the person has to fulfil it effectively. The fiduciary duty needs to be followed by the people and companies appropriately. There are many different types of laws and acts which govern the working of the company and the people well. It is due to the reason that these act outlines the different duties and code of conduct that need to be followed. Thus, it is necessary for the people to clearly understand the different obligations and responsibilities which the business needs to follow and comply with.

Corporate and business law Assignment Sample

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According to the Companies Act, 2006, it is clear that there are certain types of roles and responsibilities which the business needs to follow while working. There are different sets of fiduciary duties which are provided by the law and all the directors and the responsible people have to follow and comply with these duties well. Section 171 of this act states and lists some of the duties that need to be fulfilled by the directors while managing the business. The directors of the company must comply with these elements well so that better management can be done. The first and foremost duty that the director has to fulfil is that they must act within their powers (Halkos and Nomikos, 2021). This is necessary because if the director misuses their power, it can impact the working of the company greatly. Hence, as a result of this, the overall capability is improved in case the director will be using and following the duty well. According to this fiduciary duty, the director first must act according to the constitution of the company and also the articles of the company.

Further, another duty of the directors and the related people is to promote the success of the company, which is mentioned within section 172 of the Companies Act 2006. This is a type of the provision or the fiduciary duty that needs to be followed by directors and all the responsible people. Thus, to ensure the promotion of the business, it is the responsibility of the directors they effectively try to analyse the consequences of the decision in the long run and then finalise the decision (Santri et al, 2022). Moreover, they must always keep the interest of the company and the employees first and then only take the decision. It is necessary for the reason that when the proper care of employee is maintained then it improves the working better and as a result of this the overall efficiency will be enhanced.

Moreover, section 173 states that the director must exercise independent judgment so that it is in the interest of every stakeholder involved with the company. This is necessary because when the director effectively works for the overall company, then it implies that effective management of work is done (Kassem and Turksen, 2021). This duty also ensures that the director must not subordinate their power to others. This is necessary for the reason that any decision or judgment to be finalised must be done on the decision of the director only. The director must not be influenced by any of the subordinates and must ensure that the decision taken is free from all the bias and inclusion of the thoughts well.

The duty of care and loyalty must be reflected in the duties performed by the director or the effective working of the companies. This is necessary because when the effective type of the duty of care is not followed by the directors, then it will affect the work (Williams, 2021). Hence, as a result, it is the prime responsibility of the directors that they must fulfil all the duty of care and must be working on the responsibility by enforcing the effective loyalty. In case the duties of the directors are not fulfilled well, then it will result in a person facing the issue of suing the party with the consequences which the person has worked.

Barclays Libor Scandal case study

The LIBOR scandal is a major event relating to financial collusion and was one of the most influential benchmarks for the interest rate, which was manipulated by the different banks. Within this scandal, the financial contracts were mispriced within the different types of the contracts like the derivatives, mortgages, corporate fundraising and many other different types of the contracts. The London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) is a type of the benchmark interest rate which is provided to the short-term loans among the global banks. This is necessary because from 1986 till 2000, the LIBOR was the globally accepted benchmark for the management of the borrowing taking place between the banks (Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal, 2025). This rate was being published every day, but then, the validity of this benchmark was impacted. Within this scandal, the highly publicised scheme where the bankers and different financial institutions colluded with one another to manipulate the rate and take the benefits of the rate. Within this scandal, there were different types of banks included, which were Barclays, Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and many other different types of banks. Hence, this rate-fixing scandal resulted in many different types of regulatory changes and fines and also resulted in damaging the trust of the general public within the financial markets and different financial market instruments (Nguyen et al, 2023). Further, referring to the case of Recovery Partners GP Ltd Vs Rukhadze, it was seen that the directors had breached their fiduciary duties, and ultimately, the directors were unable to meet the working. Moreover, as a result, the court provided the order to focus on the previous profit-sharing will not be limiting the account.

With the evaluation of the scandal, it is clear that the directors of the bank and other financial institutions did not perform their duties well. Thus, as a result of this, the overall working capability was impacted and ultimately, the efficiency is impacted. According to the Companies Act 2006, it is the prime responsibility of the director they work for the benefit of the company. But in the current case, the directors and employees of Barclays bank were not working ethically and as a result of this the overall working is impacted. Thus, as a result of this, the director was unable to fulfil their duties and ultimately, the brand image of the bank was affected (Gordon, 2024). Further, the obligation also includes the fact that directors must not share their power with the subordinates. Thus, ultimately, it impacted the reputation of the bank as the name was highlighted within the scandal, and ultimately, the brand image is affected. Also, according to the law, it is clear that the involvement of executives, traders and other people is not required by the directors. Thus, they must not effectively include the other people within the decision making and ultimately this was done by the directors of Barclays. Thus, as a result of this, the reputation of the bank was negatively impacted, and ultimately, the trust of employees and the general public was reduced.

Societal impact

With this scandal, it was clear that there are many different types of societal impact developed with this, and it impacted the working of the whole society. The most common type of impact was the reduction in the level of trust among the general public. This is because of the reason that banks used malpractices, and this affected the level of trust among the general public. Fraud in terms of rates for the financial packages took place with the general public, and ultimately, the overall efficiency was impacted. Thus, it included the reduction in the trust of the general public within the financial institutes and ultimately, the overall working of the financial market was affected.

Along with this, another implication of this scandal was that the confidence of the investor was impacted greatly. The reason underlying the fact is that due to the financial fraud, the people investing became cautious, and as a result, they did not have the confidence to invest in the banks more (Cheffins and Reddy, 2022). In addition to this, there are different regulatory issues as well, which might be faced based on the different laws and regulations that need to be followed. It is because this scandal resulted in the breach of many different types of laws, and all the consequences have to be faced by the banks only.

Recommendations

With the above analysis of the Barclays LIBOR scandal, some of the recommendations for improving the future are as follows-

• The first recommendation is that effective training must be provided to the employees and directors relating to ethical working. This is necessary because when effective ethical practices are followed, it is assistive in managing the working better. This is crucial because when the work is done on an ethical basis, then the efficiency is not impacted, and all the work is done ethically.
• Further, it is recommended to Barclays that they must effectively comply with the latest technology for working (Santri et al, 2022). This is necessary when all the work will be planned and carried on by the technology, then it helps manage the work better. Thus, as a result, the chances of fraud and scandal will be reduced.
• Moreover, an effective type of organisational structure must be followed so that better accountability can be established for every type of person within management. When all the employees are working in accordance to the work allotted to them then it will be improving the efficiency (MacNeil and Esser, 2022). Moreover, when the proper responsibility is provided to the employee, then better accountability is managed, and as a result of this, the efficiency is improved.

Conclusion

At last, it is concluded that complying with the legal guidance is very necessary. This is crucial as proper compliance with the law provides for better direction to maintain the working of the company. The above study highlighted that there are certain duties specified in the Companies Act 2006 that every director needs to follow. Thus, the study explained that complying with these duties provides a clear direction to work and, as a result, the overall working is improved. At last some recommendations were provided like the implementing use of technology, having clear structure of working and others.

References

Books and Journals

• Cheffins, B.R. and Reddy, B.V., 2022. Thirty years and done–time to abolish the UK Corporate Governance Code. Journal of Corporate Law Studies, 22(2), pp.709-748.
• Gordon, M., 2024. Corporate governance: Big ideas and debates?. Melbourne University Law Review, 47(2), pp.510-553.
• Halkos, G.E. and Nomikos, S.N., 2021. Reviewing the status of corporate social responsibility (CSR) legal framework. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 32(4), pp.700-716.
• Kassem, R. and Turksen, U., 2021. Role of public auditors in fraud detection: A critical review. Contemporary Issues in Public Sector Accounting and Auditing, 105, pp.33-56.
• Kostruba, A.V., 2021. Corporate responsibility in the environmental protection as an element of public-private partnership in Ukraine. Viešoji politika ir administravimas, 20(1), pp.118-126.
• MacNeil, I. and Esser, I.M., 2022. The emergence of ‘comply or explain’as a global model for corporate governance codes. European Business Law Review, 33(1).
• Nguyen, T.H., Nguyen, Q.T., Nguyen, D.M. and Le, T., 2023. The effect of corporate governance elements on corporate social responsibility reporting of listed companies in Vietnam. Cogent business & management, 10(1), p.2170522.
• Santri, S.H., Yaswirman, Y., Warman, K. and Fauzi, W., 2022. Accountability answers company insurance life based investing against the risk of failure to pay for policyholders. Linguistics and Culture Review, pp.427-437.
• Williams, C.A., 2021. Fiduciary Duties and Corporate Climate Responsibility. Vand. L. Rev., 74, p.1875.

Online

• Barclays and the LIBOR Scandal. 2025. Online. Available through: <https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=44673>
• Directors’ duties: the UK perspective. 2024. Online. Available through: <https://globalinvestigationsreview.com/guide/the-practitioners-guide-global-investigations/2025/article/directors-duties-the-uk-perspective#:~:text=a%20duty%20to%20act%20in,insolvent%20or%20nearing%20insolvency%3B%20and>