Outline of commercial law

"I have treated within the purview of commercial law all those legal principles, from whatever branch of law they are drawn, which regularly surface in commercial disputes. It has long seemed to me that there is an unfortunate gulf between the commercial lawyer and the property and equity lawyer. Contract, sale of goods and negotiable instruments are accepted as falling within the domain of the former, equitable interests and conflicting real rights within the latter's field of expertise. But in the world of business, problems do not divide themselves into neat packages.... The practitioner has to be familiar with the principles of each of these fields of law in order to be able to give sound advice to his client."

-- Professor Sir Roy Goode, QC

Commercial law - body of law that governs business and commercial transactions. It is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals with issues of both private law and public law. It is also called business law.