Spring 2027

Business Law

Business Law covers the history of legal development, contracts, agency, sale of goods, and insurance. It describes the American legal system and applies rules on negligence, IP, and employment.

offering recorded3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 David Pelletier3.8/5Clarke SugarDanielle Johnson

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Bruce Harms

Exams were demanding and required significant memorization, with students finding past essays and case studies essential for preparation.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Recognize the legal implications of transactions and events that impact the business environment.

  • Describe the American legal system and how the American court system works.

  • Apply the technical legal rules covered in the course regarding negligence, intellectual property, contract law, agency law, and employment law.

  • Analyze and assess risks and opportunities inherent in business transactions and in everyday life.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
GENBUS 301

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027

David Pelletier

Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 4.07/5 from 14 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 56.6% A/AB (n=500 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.33 GPA, 61.5% A/AB (n=512 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 65.9% A/AB (n=505 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

BRUCE LEONARD HARMS is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Spring 2007, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

DAVID PELLETIER is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024, Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Fall 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Online Only0 / 5200
DIS 301Online Only0 / 400
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 305Classroom Instruction0 / 300
DIS 306Classroom Instruction0 / 300
DIS 307Classroom Instruction0 / 300
DIS 308Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 309Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 310Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 312Classroom Instruction0 / 400
DIS 311Classroom Instruction0 / 400
LEC 100Online Only0 / 500
DIS 313Classroom Instruction0 / 400

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Bruce Harms

Students described the course as well-organized with clear, well-presented lectures, noting the instructor taught with the confidence of an experienced lawyer.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.26 GPA, 56.6% A/AB (n=500 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.33 GPA, 61.5% A/AB (n=512 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.38 GPA, 65.9% A/AB (n=505 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Bruce Harms

Exams were demanding and required significant memorization, with students finding past essays and case studies essential for preparation.

Past student reviews · Bruce Harms

One student found the online lectures slow and dry, recommending watching them at double speed and attending discussion sections to succeed.

Topics

  • Legal development, contracts, agency, sale of goods, and insurance
  • American legal and court systems
  • Negligence, intellectual property, contract law, agency law, and employment law

Skills

  • Recognizing legal implications of business transactions and events
  • Applying technical legal rules for negligence, intellectual property, contracts, agency, and employment
  • Analyzing and assessing risks and opportunities in business transactions

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 5 same-season terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

8 earlier forecasts · 0.11 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GENBUS 301 · Spring 2027

Business Law

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:231:002962",
    "course_id": "GENBUS 301",
    "course_uid": "course_f3450711de0fb6e08ca2925e",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "002962",
    "source_subject_id": "231",
    "title": "Business Law",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 3,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "5b5fd9a70e979e849bcbd4aadcb4ba48c4d465d5098ea9d42f8b2cd5cb3d91c3",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}