About Commercial Law

Within the multiple branches of law, commercial law (also known as commercial law) is that dedicated to regulating relationships between people, contracts and commercial actions.

Commercial law is part of private law and includes all the rules related to merchants in reference to the development of their work. At a general level, it could be said that it is the branch of law that regulates the exercise of commercial activities.

Commercial law regulates the exercise of commercial activities. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to Commercial Law.

Sources of commercial law

It is important to make clear what are the sources of the aforementioned commercial law. In this case we can establish that these are the law, the jurisprudence that is the interpretation that the judge and the rest of the jurisdictional order make of the law, and also what is the custom. We can say that this last aspect emanates directly from what are the practices that merchants usually carry out.

In the case of Spain, for example, it should be noted that the main document on this matter is the Code of Commerce that was established in 1885. It is made up of four books that deal with the following matters: merchants and commerce in general, commercial contracts, maritime merchant and suspension of payments, bankruptcies and prescriptions.

However, it must also be stated that in said country this type of right is based on two fundamental rules or principles. One of them is the power of the State to plan what economic activity is. And the second of those mentioned is that it recognizes not only the right to freedom of enterprise but also to private property.

Commercial law adapts to changes in the needs of companies, the market and the community.

Criteria and principles

It is possible to distinguish between two criteria within commercial law. The objective criterion is one that refers to the acts of commerce in themselves. Instead, the subjective criterion is linked to the individual who works as a trader.

Commercial law is not static, but adapts to the changing needs of the market, companies and the community in general. In any case, five basic principles are always respected: it is an individualistic right (since it focuses on the links between individuals), professional (it protects the interests of businessmen), progressive (it changes over time), internationalized (it is integrated into global trade) and customary (it is based on customs).

Function of commercial law

Commercial law, in short, is responsible for structuring the current commercial organization and setting the conditions of the legal regulations linked to businessmen, such is the name given to all subjects who carry out activities related to commerce.

The acts of commerce, on the other hand, are those that are carried out with the intention of generating and obtaining a profit or utility.

In addition to all of the above, it is also important that we recognize the importance of commercial law in our society, since it plays a fundamental role not only in economic development but also in political and, of course, social development. It achieves this by intervening directly in the production of goods and services that are responsible for satisfying the needs of human beings.

Commercial Law