This paper is about business law in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The movie is the second of four movies in the series and in my opinion, the best of the group. The thing I found appealing about this movie in relation to Business Law was the way the characters work in the pirate code during the movie. Somewhat subtle references throughout the movie, the main character of Captain Jack played by Johnny Depp throws in just enough information to make you think about the pirates’ code which is the law of the sea for these characters and Captain Jack uses them to his advantage to persuade his crew. As a captain of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow could make up the pirate code or code of conduct which would benefit him the most. This entailed the law on the ship that detailed the rewards, penalties and compensation for all actions of the crew members. Each captain had the right and duty to develop and enforce their ship’s pirate code. Jack’s main goal in this movie is to find the Dead Man’s Chest to pay off his debt to Davy Jones. If he fails, he will become a crew member on Davy Jones’ ghostly ship forever. Throughout the movie, the pirates are seen as lawless, but the movie starts with the FBI Anti-Piracy Warning – Copyrighted Work with a five year - $250,000 fine. Being that this movie is about pirates, I had to laugh a little.
The first scene brings us to the jail where Will Turner played by Orlando Bloom is removed from jail after being arrested. He is told there was a warrant for his arrest from Lord Beckett under the jurisdiction of the King for conspiracy and he had been sentenced to death. Will and Elizabeth are presented with arrest warrants and taken right to jail. Will and his fiancée helped Captain Jack Sparrow escape capture in the first movie. It is obvious that this is false imprisonment, but they have no choice but to comply with Lord Beckett’s directions. Lord Beckett wants to use Will and his fiancée to get a compass from Jack Sparrow. He releases Will and makes a deal or contract with him to get the compass from Jack. Lord Beckett tells Will to get him that compass or there is no deal. The deal would be a pardon for Will and his fiancée. Lord Beckett plans to leave Elizabeth, Will’s fiancée in jail as collateral until the compass is returned. Elizabeth is played by Keira Knightenley. This is also bringing some intentional infliction of emotional distress on Will because his fiancée is still locked up. Will goes to tell Elizabeth of the plan and trespasses back to the jail to tell her. The guard tries to stop Will and her father, but eventually lets them in to talk with Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s father is the governor of Port Royal, but appears to have very little power over Lord Beckett who is the head of the East India Trading Company that has imprisoned Will and Elizabeth. There are definitely some questionable business practices with the East India Trading Company that challenge the law and ethics. The governor should have supreme authority over the head of a firm like the East India Trading Company, but because of the cast flow that the firm is able to generate, they have taken power of the law for Port Royal. Initially, the contract between Will and Lord Beckett is not a mutual agreement, but Will really has no choice if he wants to see Elizabeth again and does not want to return to jail himself. Ideally, this would be a voidable contract in today’s law, but Will complies and this becomes a binding agreement. He sets off to find the compass that is carried by Captain Jack Sparrow. Ethics and morals are thrown to the wayside. After their arrest, they went to jail, bypassed the trail and sentenced to death for conspiracy. The court system does not exist in this movie.
Jack is confronted during what appears to be a dream by Will’s father who is serving under Davy Jones and a ghostly crew member indentured to 100 years of service. He has taken on some forms of life from the sea as all of