Law for Accounting and Finance

1.Assessment Format

The modes of assessment for N1584 Law for Accounting and Finance are:

one 1,200 word essay counting 60% towards your final mark and

the MCQ Test (50 questions) counting 40% towards your final mark.

For Visiting and Exchange Students leaving at Christmas (my records indicate that there are no students in this group), the MCQ test will be replaced by a second 1,200 word essay. All other students on the course cannot opt out of the MCQ Test. The additional essay topic for these students can be found at paragraph 11 infra.

The Assessed Essay

2.The Deadline for the Assessed Essay

In accordance with BMEc policy only the deadlines published on Sussex Direct are authoritative. Please check the essay submission date on Sussex Direct.

3.The Topic for the Assessed Essay

Critically evaluate, in relation to the common law duty of care, the liability of accountants for negligent mistakes made when producing accounts. Does their liability differ depending on whether the mistake understates profits (or overstates losses) compared to the situation where the mistake overstates profits (or understates losses)?

4.The Format of the Assessed Essay

The essay should be word-processed. You should retain a copy of your work. All sources should be clearly cited. Please double-space your work, use at least a font size 12. The maximum number of words permitted is 1,200, the equivalent of approximately four A4 pages. Marks will be deducted for inadequate or incomplete referencing. A Bibliography is required.

5.Where should I submit my essay?

The essay is to be submitted via e-submission through Study Direct.

It is possible that the Visiting and Exchange Students’ additional essay for Christmas leavers will be a paper submission for which point 8 will be relevant.

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6 Electronic Submission and Feedback

From 2014/15, students taking first year modules will usually be asked to submit assessments electronically where assessments are text-based, for example, an essay. Your Sussex Direct webpages and module handbook will give all assessment details, including whether the assessment is to be submitted via e- submission through Sussex Direct or in hard copy via the School Office. Feedback for all e-submission assessments will also be provided electronically.

Please refer to the frequently asked questions available on the following webpage for further information:

www.sussex.ac.uk/adqe/standards/examsandassessment/esubmission

7 Turnitin

You are encouraged to use the internet-based text-matching service, Turnitin, prior to submitting your assessments. This may help you identify problems with your referencing. Turnitin is also used during the marking process as a means of checking the originality of submitted work. From the 2014/15 academic year all assessments submitted electronically via e-submission will be uploaded to the Turnitin database and an Originality Report will be made available to the marker. Please refer to the frequently asked questions available on the following webpage for further information:

www.sussex.ac.uk/adqe/standards/examsandassessment/esubmission

8.What information will I be required to include?

Your will be required to provide your candidate number (it can be found on your student ID card); the module code (N1584) and the name of the module (Law for Accounting and Finance). Do not include your name anywhere on your essay!

If you are submitting manually (Visiting and Exchange Students who are Christmas leavers), you are requested to state the word count of your essay on submission.

9.How should I reference my essay?

In accordance with BMEc policy only the Harvard style of referencing is acceptable. The BMEc Guide to the Citation of Legal Authorities is available on the N1584 Study Direct module website (and in an appendix here). Further information on the Harvard referencing style can be found at the referencing section of InfoSuss. Use the link in the “General Resources” section of the Study Direct course website or the following web address: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/infosuss/referencing/.

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10.What happens if I submit my essay late?

Work submitted late is marked as normal but the penalties for late submission are set out in Regulation 1.6 of the Examination and Assessment Regulations Handbook. The relevant section of Regulation 1.6 reads as follows:

A penalty deduction of 5 percentage points (not 5% of the actual mark) shall be applied to work submitted up to 24 hours late although the application of such penalties shall not reduce the overall conflated mark below the minimum pass mark. This means that such penalties cannot in themselves prevent progression or require the student to resit assessments that have been academically passed.

A penalty deduction of 10 percentage points (not 10% of the actual mark) shall be applied to work submitted after 24 hours and up to 7 days late, although the application of such penalties shall not reduce the overall conflated mark below the minimum pass mark. This means that such penalties cannot in themselves prevent progression or require the student to resit assessments that have been academically passed.

Work will not be accepted more than 7 days after the original deadline. A mark of 0 and a non-submission will be recorded. Work that has been submitted on time will be marked once the deadline has passed and therefore a revised version cannot be resubmitted after the deadline for a penalty.

Please note that penalties are not applied where an extension to the due date has been granted as part of reasonable adjustments (this happens WELL in advance of the deadline)1 or where the lateness penalty is waived as part of the Extenuating Circumstances (EC) process (formerly Mitigating Evidence Claims (MEC).

11 Writing Well and Avoiding Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism, collusion, and cheating in exams are all forms of academic misconduct which the University takes very seriously. Every year, some students commit academic misconduct unintentionally because they did not know what was expected of them. The consequences for committing academic misconduct can be severe, so it is important that you familiarise yourself with what it is and how to avoid it.

The University’s S3 guide to study skills gives advice on writing well, including hints and tips on how to avoid making serious mistakes. You will also find helpful guides to referencing properly and improving your critical writing skills. Make use of the resources there.

If you are dealing with difficult circumstances, such as illness or bereavement, do not try to rush your work or hand in something which may be in breach of the rules. Instead you should seek confidential advice from the Student Life Centre. The full

1 Reasonable Adjustments are usually put in place by the Student Support Unit on the basis of recommendations made in a diagnostic report. See further http://www.sussex.ac.uk/studentsupport/learningdifficulties/ra

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University rules on academic misconduct are set out in the Examination and Assessment Regulations Handbook

The issue of plagiarism is a growing academic concern, and one that the University of Sussex takes seriously. For further advice on the issue of academic misconduct see http://www.sussex.ac.uk/studentlifecentre/academic/academicmisconduct

Plagiarism is the use, without acknowledgement, of the intellectual work of other people, and the act of representing the ideas or discoveries of another as one`s own in written work submitted for assessment. To copy sentences, phrases or even striking expressions without acknowledgement of the source (either by inadequate citation or failure to indicate verbatim quotations), is plagiarism; to paraphrase without acknowledgement is likewise plagiarism. Where such copying or paraphrase has occurred the mere mention of the source in the bibliography shall not be deemed sufficient acknowledgement; each such instance must be referred specifically to its source. Verbatim quotations must be either in inverted commas, or indented, and directly acknowledged.

Collusion is the preparation or production of work for assessment jointly with another person or persons unless explicitly permitted by the examiners. An act of collusion is understood to encompass those who actively assist others as well as those who derive benefit from others. Where joint preparation is permitted by the examiners but joint production is not, the submitted work must be produced solely by the candidate making the submission. Where joint production or joint preparation and production of work for assessment is specifically permitted, this must be published in the appropriate course documentation

12 Wordcount Questions

The university has replaced varying practice within individual departments with Rule 2.6.6 (ii) in the Examination and Assessment Regulations Handbook which reads:

The maximum length for each assessment is publicised to students. The limits as stated include quotations in the text, but do not include the bibliography, footnotes/endnotes, appendices, abstracts, maps, illustrations, transcriptions of linguistic data, or tabulations of numerical or linguistic data and their captions.

Rule 2.6.6. (ii) also contains the procedure to be followed where essays fail to observe the wordcount:

Where a student has marginally (within 10%) exceeded the word length the Marker should penalise the work where the student would gain an unfair advantage by exceeding the word limit. In excessive cases (>10%) the Marker need only consider work up to the designated word count, and discount any excessive word length beyond that to ensure equity across the cohort. Where an assessment is submitted and falls significantly short (>10%) of the word length, the Marker must consider in assigning a mark, if the argument has been sufficiently developed and is sufficiently supported and not assign the full marks allocation where this is not the case.

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13.Additional Essay Topic for V & E Students Leaving at Christmas

Critically evaluate whether the British government trigger Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) without obtaining prior parliamentary approval? If you believe prior parliamentary approval is required to trigger Article 50 what form would this approval have to take? A simple vote in parliament or enabling legislation? Give reasons for your answer to the form of approval required.

The due date for the additional essay is yet to be confirmed by BMEc. The same rules apply regarding hand-in procedure, wordcount and referencing etc. Please mark your essays as “V & E Additional Essay for Christmas Leavers”

The Multiple Choice Test

14.The date and time of the Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) Test

15.How long will the MCQ be?

The MCQ test will last for 1 hour and will consist of 50 questions.

16.What is the syllabus for the MCQ Test?

The syllabus for the MCQ test is chapters 1-13 the module textbook (excluding chapters 9 and 10). Please note that questions can be set on material taught as self-study units of the syllabus.

17.Are any past papers available?

The two most recent MCQs for N1072 which has an identical syllabus (and MCQ) are available on the Past Exam Papers section of the University of Sussex website. This can be found under P in the A-Z. Login and use N1072 in the “search for” box.

Students are strongly encouraged to make use of the multiple choice questions available at the OUP online resource centre for Jones Introduction to Business Law. Follow the link on the Study Direct website for this module.

18.What marking scheme will be applied?

In accordance with current BMEC there will be no negative marking scheme (“adjustment for guesses”). The N1584 MCQ will have four choices for each

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question. Students will get 1 mark for a correct answer, 0 marks for an incorrect answer and 0 marks where no answer is offered for a particular question.

19.What should I bring to the MCQ Test?

You are required to bring your student ID Card (you will need to provide your candidate number on the answer sheet) a HB (or B) pencil and an eraser (rubber). The MCQ Test is a closed-book test so do not take any notes or books with you. You will also be required to hand in your mobile telephone and no laptop computers or calculators can be taken in either. Sadly, dictionaries are not permitted either.

20.What happens if I miss the MCQ Test?

With the exception of V & E students leaving at Christmas who have a replacement essay topic, unless your absence is condoned by the university’s Extenuating Circumstances (EC) procedures, you will get 0% for the MCQ. All claims and supporting evidence must be submitted online via Sussex Direct and be supported by robust evidence which corresponds to the assessment deadlines or scheduled examination.

Introduction

This document provides guidance on citing legal resources using the Harvard style of referencing. The Harvard (or name-date) referencing style is mandatory for all

BMEc “N” code courses including (but not limited to)

N1072 – Introduction to Business Law

N1584 – Law for Accounting and Finance

N1513 – Law of Business Organisations

Students taking law courses with “M” codes (e.g. M3001 – Commercial Law) are reminded that the School of Law, Politics and Sociology has a different referencing policy and students on these courses should follow the guidance in the SLS Guide to Referencing contained in the Sussex Law School, School of Law, Politics and Sociology Undergraduate Handbook.

For general Harvard style referencing guidance, see further infoSuss – Information Skills Guide Harvard Style (available at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/library/infosuss/referencing/h_intro.shtml.)

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Please note that there are several systems for citing legal materials - you should select ONE and NOT MIX THEM. If you are studying law as part of another course, check with your lecturer which system they require.

What do I need to know about citing law references?

The reasons for citing a source are to enable someone reading your work to trace a document you have mentioned and to avoid allegations of plagiarism by attributing work correctly. There are two parts to citing references:

1.including details in the text when you are referring to another person’s ideas, and

2.listing the details of all these references at the end of your work.

In-text citations

For general sources, include Author surname, date, page pin point in your text (e.g. (Jones, 2015, 353)). Cases and legislation are different. Cases and legislation did not form part of the core system of Harvard style of referencing and the name-dateformat has had to be adopted to cope with these importance legal sources.

Cases

The first time that you cite a case, refer to it in full with the Party Names and law report citation:

Example: Central London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd2 [1947] 13 KB4

1305

Unless it would not be clear to which case you are referring, you can generally refer to the case subsequently by the first party names only (e.g. Central London Property Trust) or both parties if this is customary (e.g. Donoghue v Stevenson). The exampleCentral London Property Trust Ltd v High Trees House Ltd is customarily referred to as High Trees. If you are referring to specific page or paragraph then include these after the reference.

Example: Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart [1993] AC 593, 594

If you are quoting directly from a judgment put the quote in “ ”. You can shorten the quote using pauses (…):

2The name of the parties involved in the case.

3The year in which the case was reported. Square brackets indicate that the date is an essential part of the citation. Some series of law reports number the volumes serially (e.g. volume 1, 2 etc.) from year to year and in such cases, the year of publication can be placed in round brackets. Frequently the publication will be issued in a number of volumes (2, 3 of 4) to cope with the volume of cases and in such cases the volume number will follow the year of publication e.g. [1992] 3 WLR.

4The abbreviation of the name of the law report or journal. KB is the abbreviation for King’s Bench and in the reign of a Queen (i,e. presently) it is renamed Queen’s Bench (QB).

5The page number on which the case begins.

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Example: This point was reinforced in the judgment of Diplock LJ in Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co Ltd v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd [1962] 2 QB 26, 70 when he said

“There are many… contractual undertakings… which cannot be categorised as being ‘conditions’.”

Legislation

Include the name and date of the piece of legislation in italics. For Statutory Instruments, additionally include (SI number). After the first mention, you can refer to Acts/SIs by short title and year. When referring to particular parts of legislation, Acts are broken into sections (s. for section and ss. for sections), parts (pt), schedules (sch) and paragraphs (para); Statutory Instruments into either articles (art.) rules (r. or rr) or regulations (reg or regs) and then paragraphs and sub paragraphs:

Example: Compensation Act 2006

Insolvency Rules 1986 (SI 1986/925)

Consumer Credit Act 1974, s. 75

Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 (SI 2000/2334), reg 11

References at the end of your text

Cases

If you are not sure of the abbreviation, you can usually find the citation at the start of the case, top of the page or within LexisLibrary or Westlaw (available via Online Resources in the Electronic Library section of the Sussex Library homepage). If you can’t find out the meaning of an abbreviation of an English language legal publication from these sources, try using the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations(“google” it or use http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/). A law report citation typically includes the following elements.

Party Names [Year of publication] Volume number (if available) Law Report Abbreviation Start page

Example: Barry v Davies (trading as Heathcote Ball & Co) [2000] 1 WLR 1962 (CA)6

Use of square or round brackets - this depends on whether the date is essential to locate the case. If the date is essential because there are multiple volumes each year, use square brackets. If the date is not essential because there is a unique volume number, put the year of judgment (not the year of publication) in round brackets:

Example: Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 9 Ex 341

6 This case is also reported in the All England Law Reports under the name – Barry v Heathcote Ball & Co (Commercial Auctions) Ltd [2001] 1 All ER 944 (CA).

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Neutral citations

Most cases from 2001 onwards have neutral citations. A neutral citation includes the year of the judgment, the Court abbreviation (e.g. UKHL=UK House of Lords, EWCA=England and Wales Court of Appeal) and the case number. This can be included before a law report citation, or if a case is otherwise unreported:

Example: National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Ltd [2005] UKHL 41

Unreported cases

Transcripts of some unreported cases can be found on Westlaw/LexisLibrary. A neutral citation should be given where possible. Cases prior to 2001 should include: Party Names. Court. Date of judgment.

For additional clarity, you can include unreported:

Example: Hare v Pollard. Court of Appeal Civil Division. 16 June 1997 (Unreported)

Cases only available electronically - where a case is only available electronically you should indicate that you looked at it online and include after your reference: [online] [viewed date]. Available from: URL or LexisLibrary/Westlaw

Examples: R v Greet [2005] EWCA Crim 205 [online] [viewed 16 June 2012]. Available from: Westlaw R v Rezvi [2002] UKHL 1 [online] [viewed 16 June 2012]. Available from: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/2002/1.html

European Union Cases

Include Case number Party Names [Year] Law report abbreviation Volume number

– Start page

Example: Case 26/62, NV Algemene Transporten Expeditie Onderneming van Gend en Loos v Netherlandse Administratie der Belastngen [1963] ECR 1; [1963] CMLR 105

The example is customarily referred to as Van Gen den Loos.

Legislation

Acts are also known as Statutes. The title and date are always included. Each Act has a chapter number which you can additionally include, along with publisher information if required.

Statutory Instruments are also known as Orders, Rules and Regulations. Cite the title and year and SI number.

Bills are proposals for legislation heard in both the House of Commons and House of Lords. Include the Short title (Parliamentary session) Serial number. The serial number changes every time the Bill is reprinted. Include [ ] for House of Commons bill numbers.

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Act Example: Environment Act 1995, Ch 25. London: HMSO SI Example: Insolvency Rules 1986 (SI 1986/925)

Bill Examples: Presumption of Death Bill HC Bill (2012-2013)Torture (Damages) Bill HL Bill (2010-11) cl.3

European Union legislation is cited as follows:

Regulations: Institutional Origin (Institutional Treaty) Number/year Date it was passed Title

Commission Documents (Com Docs): Title, COM (Last two digits of year) Serial number, draft or final.

Directives and Decisions: Institutional origin Form Year/Legislation Number/ Institutional Treaty Date passed Title

Examples: Council Regulation (EC) No. 2078/92 of 30 June 1992 on the agricultural production method

Proposal for a Council Directive on uniform procedures for checks on the transport of dangerous goods, COM (93) 965, final.

Council Directive 92/83/EEC of 19 October 1992 on the harmonization of the structures of excise duties on alcoholic beverages

Government publications

A reference to a Command Paper is cited as follows:

AUTHOR(s), Year of publication. Title (Command paper number). Place of publication: Publisher

Example: LAW COMMISSION, 1998. Liability for Psychiatric Illness (Law Com No 249) (HC 525) LONDON: The Stationary Office

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