Chapter 2Business Law

Ethics?Determining what is a right or wrong action in a reasoned, impartial manner.

3 ElementsDecision

about wrong and right behavior

A reasoned Decision

Impartial Decision

Must affect you or others in some significant way.

Decisions must be based

on reason—not emotion!

Ethical Standards are applied to

everyone—if it is wrong for you it is wrong for me.

Consequential and Deontological Reasoning

Consequential: Right or Wrong Decisions are based only on the Consequences or results of the action. They look at the alternative actions and evaluate what would be the best outcome.

Deontological:Based on what authority figures say is right and wrong.Based on reasoning. What you believe is right and wrong-that inner “Gut” feeling.

High School graduation is an important event full of traditions which, in the past, often included prayers by local clergy. In 1992, the Supreme Court declared that nonsectarian prayer at public high school graduations violated the First Amendment, which guaranteed the separation of church and state. In June, 1993 the Supreme Court declared that the opinion of the majority of students-whether in favor of or opposed to prayer-would determine whether school functions would include prayer. The preference of school officials was not to determine the outcome of this issue.Your

Opinion is…

Prayer in School?

Noise LawIn a costal city of California, residents often could not sleep because people were driving late at night with their car windows down and their stereos playing full blast. On holidays, people put large home stereos in the back of their pickup trucks and played them as loud as possible. In response, the city council enacted a law making it illegal to generate noise in public above a certain decibel (level of loudness).Is there an ethical

justification for this law?

Do you think that graffiti artists have a right to display their art in public places?

GRAFFITI

Amendment Misinterpretation

Speedy Trial Cruel and

Unusual

Unreasonable Excessive

Are we ever JUSTIFIED?Civil Disobedience is ethical only when:A written law is in conflict with ethical reasoning.There are no effective political methods available to change the lawThe civil disobedience is nonviolentIt does not advance one’s immediate self-interestThe civil disobedience is public and one willingly accepts the punishment for violating the law.

Scofflaws: Persons who do not respect the law.

Never ethically justified in violating the law.