business law or commercial law or mercantile law Legal rules and principles bearing on business organizations and commercial matters. It regulates various forms of legal business entities, including sole proprietors, partnerships, registered companies with limited liability, agents, and multinational corporations. Nearly all statutory rules govern¬ ing business organizations are intended to protect creditors or investors. In addition, specific bodies of law regulate commercial transactions, including the sale and carriage of goods (terms and conditions, specific performance, breach of contract, insurance, bills of lading), consumer credit agreements (letters of credit, loans, security, bankruptcy), and rela¬ tions between employers and employees (wages, conditions of work,
health and safety, fringe benefits, and trade unions). It is a broad and con¬ tinually evolving field. See also agency; corporation; debtor and creditor;
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY; LABOUR LAW.
Busoni \bu-'so-ne\, Ferruccio (Dante Michelangiolo Benve¬ nuto) (b. April 1, 1866, Empoli, Tuscany—d. July 27, 1924, Berlin, Ger.) Italian-born German composer and pianist. He first performed in public at age 7, and at 12 he conducted his own Stabat Mater. He taught in Hel¬ sinki, Moscow, and Boston before settling permanently in Berlin in 1894. He won fame as a virtuoso pianist and gave premieres of the works of major composers. His most celebrated work in his lifetime, the opera Die Brautwahl (1910), was followed by the operas Arlecchino (1916) and Turandot (1917), but the unfinished and posthumously produced Doktor Faust is regarded as his masterpiece. Of his orchestral works, his piano concerto (1904) is most widely performed. His many piano pieces include the Fantasia contrappuntistica (1910), six sonatinas (1910-20), and arrangements of organ works by Johann Sebastian Bach.
bustard Any of about 23 species of medium-sized to large game birds in the family Otididae, related to the cranes and rails in the order Grui- formes. Bustards are found in Africa, southern Europe, Asia, Australia, and New Guinea. A tall running bird, they have long legs, a compact body carried in a horizontal position, and an erect neck placed forward of the legs. The best-known species is the great bustard (Otis tarda), the largest European land bird. Males of this species weigh as much as 31 lbs (14 kg) and reach lengths of 4 ft (1.2 m), with 8-ft (2.4-m) wingspreads.
Bute, John Stuart, 3rd earl of orig. John Stuart (b. May 25,
1713, Edinburgh, Scot.—d. March 10, 1792, London, Eng.) Scottish-born British statesman. He was the tutor and constant companion of the future George III; when the latter ascended to the throne, he named Bute secre¬ tary of state (1761). As prime minister (1762-63), Bute negotiated the peace ending the Seven Years' War, but, having failed to create a stable administration, he resigned in 1763.
Buthelezi X.biit-Va-zeV Mangosuthu G(atsha) (b. Aug. 27, 1928, Mahlabatini, Natal, S.Af.) Zulu chief and leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party. Descended from Cetshwayo, he assumed leadership of the Buthelezi clan in 1953. He was elected head of the nonindependent black state of KwaZulu in 1972 and revived Inkatha in 1975 after breaking with the African National Congress (ANC). Rejecting full independence for Kwa¬ Zulu, he worked within the white establishment to end apartheid. In 1990-94 he engaged in a fierce struggle for leadership with the ANC; thousands were killed in Inkatha-ANC clashes. Following the 1994 national elections, he was appointed minister of home affairs by Nelson Mandela; he held the post until 2004.
Butkus Vbot-kosV, Dick in full Richard J. Butkus (b. Dec. 9, 1942, Chicago, Ill., U.S.) U.S. football player. He played for the University of Illinois before joining the Chicago Bears (1965-73). He became known for his aggression and toughness on the field as much as for his play¬ making ability. His career was shortened by injuries; after retirement he became active in television and sports promotion. Butkus is considered among the best middle linebackers of all time.
Butler, Benjamin F(ranklin) (b. Nov. 5, 1818, Deerfield, N.H., U.S.—d. Jan. 11, 1893, Washington, D.C.) U.S. army officer. A prominent attorney in Lowell, Mass., Butler served two terms in the state legislature (1853, 1859). In the American Civil War he commanded Fort Monroe, Va., where he refused to return fugitive slaves to the Confederacy, calling them “contraband of war,” an interpretation later upheld by the government. He oversaw the occupation of New Orleans in 1862 but was recalled because of his harsh rule. He led the Union army in Virginia, but after several defeats he was relieved of his command in 1865. In the U.S. House of Representatives (1867-75, 1877-79), he was a Radical Republican prominent in the impeachment trial of Pres. Andrew Johnson. He switched parties in 1878 to support the Greenback movement and later served as governor of Massachusetts (1882-84).
Butler, Joseph (b. May 18, 1692, Wantage, Berkshire, Eng.—d. June 16, 1752, Bath, Somerset) British bishop and moral philosopher. He became dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral in 1740 and bishop of Durham in 1750. His works defended revealed religion against the rationalist think¬ ers of his time. His The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature (1736) attacked the doctrine of Deism, according to which knowledge of God is acquired through reason rather than revelation. His Of the Nature of Virtue, appended to the Anal-
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ogy, presented a refutation of hedonism and of the notion that self-interest is the ultimate principle of good conduct.
Butler, Nicholas M(urray) (b. April 2, 1862, Elizabeth, N.J., U.S.—d. Dec. 7, 1947, New York, N.Y.) U.S. educator. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He was the founding president of what is today Columbia’s Teachers College (1886-91). As president of Colum¬ bia University itself (1901—45), he led the institution to world renown. Early in his career he criticized prevailing pedagogical methods, but later he turned on pedagogical reform itself, decrying vocationalism in educa¬ tion and behaviorism in psychology. A champion of international under¬ standing, he helped establish the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in 1910 and served as its president (1925—45). In 1931 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams.
Butler, R(ichard) A(usten), baron of Saffron Walden (b. Dec. 9, 1902, Attock Serai, India—d. March 8, 1982, Great Yeldham, Essex, Eng.) British politician. Known as “Rab” Butler, he was elected to Par¬ liament in 1929 and served in various Conservative governments in the 1930s. As minister of education, he was responsible for the 1944 Educa¬ tion Act, which established free secondary education. After the Tories’ electoral losses in 1945, he helped remold the Conservative Party, serv¬ ing as its leader (1955-61). He served as chancellor of the exchequer (1951-55), home secretary (1957-62), and foreign secretary (1963-64).
Butler, Samuel (b. Feb. 8, 1612, Strensham, Worcestershire, Eng.—d. Sept. 25, 1680, London) British poet and satirist. He held several clerical positions, where he could observe cranks and scoundrels like those whose antics he targeted. He is famous for Hudibras (1663-78), a mock-heroic poem skewering the fanaticism, pretentiousness, pedantry, and hypocrisy he saw in militant Puritanism. It is the most memorable burlesque poem in English and the first English satire that successfully attacked ideas rather than personalities.
Butler, Samuel (b. Dec. 4, 1835,
Eng.—d. June 18, 1902, London)
British novelist, essayist, and critic.
Descended from distinguished cler¬ gymen, he grappled for many years with Christianity and evolution, first embracing, then rejecting, Charles Darwin’s theories in his writings. He is best known for The Way of All Flesh (1903), his autobiographical novel that tells, with ruthless wit and lack of sentiment, the story of his escape from the suffocating moral atmosphere of his home circle. In his lifetime his reputation rested on the utopian satire Erewhon (1872), which foreshadowed the end of the Victorian illusion of eternal progress.