S

S Corporation:

A small business that is taxed as a partnership rather than a corporation. Income is taxed to the corporation's individual shareholders rather than to the corporation itself. To qualify as an S corporation, the business may have no more than 35 shareholders, may not issue more than one class of stock, and all shareholders must consent to the S corporation designation.

Secondary-Line Effect:

In antitrust law, a harmful effect on competition resulting from price discrimination that injures retailers and buyers.

Secondary Meaning:

In trademark law, a meaning associated with the name of a product or service that has become so well established as to be identified specifically with that product or service.

Secondary Rules:

In the philosophy of legal positivism, rules that are constitutional in nature, telling us who has the right to issue primary rules and in what circumstances.

Section l0b:

The section of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 that restricts insider trading of securities.

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

The federal agency that administers and enforces the securities laws. Its primary objective is to ensure full disclosure of financial information to investors.

Security:

A stock, bond, note, or other instrument signifying an interest held by an investor in a company. In general, it is any investment instrument regulated by the Securities Act of 1933.

Security Investors Protection Corporation:

A federal agency, established by Congress in 19'70, that provides compensation to clients of investment firms that fail.

Separate-But-Equal Doctrine:

A doctrine formulated by the U. S. Supreme Court in the 19th century, holding that racial segregation need not imply inequality so long as the facilities available to the races are considered similar. The Court overruled this doctrine in 1954 when it held that separate facilities are inherently unequal.

Separation of Powers:

A system devised by the framers of the U. S. Constitution, dividing the powers of the federal government among three distinct and equal branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judiciary. Each branch serves as a check on the other two.

Service Credit:

Refers to credit extended to consumers for household services such as utilities.

Service Mark:

A mark used to identify and distinguish a particular service.

Service of Process:

Delivery of a complaint and summons.

Session Laws:

Volumes collecting the slip laws of Congress and each of the state legislatures.

Sexual Harassment:

A form of employment discrimination in which employment opportunities are offered in exchange for sexual favors, or a worker is subjected to unwanted sexual comments or physical contacts. Prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Shareholder:

A person who owns shares of stock in a corporation.

Shark-Repellent:

A strategy in which a corporation attempts to prevent a takeover attempt by making itself undesirable to the prospective purchaser.

Sherman Act:

The first antitrust legislation in the U. S., passed by Congress in 1890. Section I prohibits all contracts or combinations in restraint of interstate trade. Section 2 provides that anyone who monopolizes any part of interstate commerce or foreign trade, or attempts to do so, is guilty of a felony.

Slander:

An oral defamatory statement made about another.

Slip Laws:

Laws published in pamphlet or singlesheet format soon after their enactment.

Snob Zoning:

Refers to zoning laws that exclude housing for people of low and moderate incomes, or minorities.

Social Contract:

A theory holding that an implied agreement exists among members of the society to be governed by the law, surrendering individual freedoms in exchange for protection.

Social-Performance Model:

A model of social responsibility holding that economic performance cannot be separated from ethical and social values.

Sociological Jurisprudence:

The idea that the law, and its judicial interpretations, should take into account the findings of sociology.

Sole Proprietorship:

A business enterprise with one owner who personally holds title to the business and its assets, and is solely liable for all the obligations of the business.

Sovereign Immunity:

A doctrine holding that the state, or a foreign government, cannot be made party to a lawsuit without its consent.

Sovereignty Doctrine:

A doctrine holding that the federal government possesses absolute authority throughout the U. S. In the context of collective bargaining, the doctrine extends certain powers to government employers that are not available to private employers.

Special Deterrence Theory:

A theory holding that the objective of criminal punishment is to dissuade offenders from committing additional crimes by making the consequences of punishment so unpleasant that the offender will refrain from criminal behavior in the future.

Specific Performance:

An equitable remedy in which a party is ordered to fulfill a contractual obligation. It is granted most frequently in cases involving real property.

Standing:

The legal right to bring a suit. The doctrine of standing bolds that the parties to a case must have an actual, personal interest in the outcome of a case in order to litigate it.

Stand-Still Agreement:

An agreement whereby someone attempting to arrange a hostile takeover of a company agrees not to seek control of the company for a number of years.

Stare Decisis:

"Let the decision stand. " The doctrine requiring courts to follow previously established precedents when deciding cases based on similar facts.

State Of The Art Defense:

In product liability law, a defense asserting that a manufacturer should not be held responsible for defects that were not known to be dangerous when a product was manufactured, but should be judged by whatever level of knowledge was the state of the art at that time. The defense is controversial and has applied in only a few cases.

States' Rights:

A movement advocating that state and local governments be given more power, and opposing the grant to Congress of powers that are not expressly mentioned in the Constitution.

Statute:

A law enacted by Congress or a state legislature.

Statute of Frauds:

A doctrine that requires certain types of contracts to be in writing in order to be enforced.

Statutory Consolidation:

An arrangement whereby two companies, roughly equal in size, form a new corporation wholly distinct from the companies that combined to form it.

Statutory Defense:

A defense to a claim that is provided for in a statute, as opposed to a defense that has been established by court decisions.

Statutory Merger:

A merger arrangement in which one company is taken into another and loses its separate identity.

Stock Exchange:

An organized market in which securities are bought and sold.

Straight Voting:

A method of voting to elect corporate directors, in which each share of stock is worth one vote for each seat on the board and shareholders may not choose how to distribute their votes. This system, unlike cumulative voting, does not promote minority representation on the board.

Strict Liability:

In tort law, a doctrine under which liability may be imposed without fault; that is, even when the defendant has not been negligent or guilty of intentional misconduct. Strict liability cases usually involve defective products or inherently dangerous activities.

Structural Analysis:

In antitrust law, a two-stage procedure used to determine if a company with a high market share has monopoly power. The first stage defines the market in question; the second stage calculates the percentage of the market held by the company.

Subject Matter Jurisdiction:

A court's authority to hear a particular category of cases.

Subsidy:

A way in which the federal government may support business, by providing direct cash payments, low-interest loans, guaranteed loans, or tax incentives.

Substantial Capacity Test:

A version of the insanity defense, providing that a person is not responsible for criminal conduct if at the time of such conduct, as a result of mental disease or defect, he or she lacked the substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of the conduct or to conform the conduct to the law.

Substantial Certainty:

In tort law, the standard used to determine whether conduct was intentional. A tort is held to have been intentional if the injury that followed was a substantially certain result of it.

Substantive Due Process:

A concept under which the U. S. Supreme Court has evaluated substantive laws to determine whether they violate fundamental rights granted by the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. In the early l900s the Court used substantive due process to justify striking down progressive economic legislation. The concept is less widely accepted today.