Benchmarking and Accreditation Goals Support the Value of an Undergraduate Business Law Core Course

Abstract

This article surveys top-ranked business schools in the United States for inclusion of business law in their undergraduate core curricula. The vast majority of these schools require: law, legal studies, or law and public policy, and many include an ethics component. The surveyed schools also feature elective courses in law, and some provide concentrations, minors, or majors in law or legal studies. Benchmarking supports the conclusion that top programs value business law as essential knowledge for business students. In addition, the authors note that business law courses support general business knowledge areas and skills identified by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), as enhancing mission-critical skills. These skills include the ability to communicate effectively and the development of critical thinking and analysis. Furthermore, business law acts as an important bridge to the liberal arts for business school students. Finally, business law courses provide core knowledge to satisfy the assurance of learning for accreditation assessment purposes, in particular for those schools utilizing the Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) Bachelor of Business Exam which allocates approximately ten percent of questions to legal and social environment, and other subject areas tested include elements of law.

Keywords: business law, legal studies, ethics, undergraduate business core, benchmarking, AACSB accreditation, assessment, assurance of learning, critical thinking, effective oral and written communication, Business Week and U.S. News rankings

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K2, K20, K30, K4, K40, K41, K42