Ethics and the law
The relationship between ethics and the law is something we will always
have to bear in mind from a theoretical as well as a practical point
of view.The philosophy of law,jurisprudence,is a large area of study
with a considerable overlap with applied ethics,but which also addresses
a number of issues we cannot deal with here.Both ethics (including
business ethics)and the legal system in a given country evolve over time.
If we see the law as the operationalisation of a moral code then we may
note the following:
_ There are actions which are legal but may be considered unethical
by some individuals in a society.
_ There are actions which may be illegal but have no specific ethical
content (except,of course,that one should obey the law!).Typically
this may include minor infringements of laws which are intended as
administrational or where arbitrary limits have been set.This is not
to say that such laws can be broken but that extensive ethical
analysis may not be useful.
_ Some non-deontological approaches to ethics relate to character
development or to maximising social benefit which are simply not
addressed by the law,except as they relate to resulting actions.It is
not illegal to wish someone harm unless you do (or perhaps say)
something about it,though this does not show a high level of moral
development!Similarly,it is hard to see how a law could
operationalise the utilitarian objective of maximising happiness!
Another key issue in political and social debate is the freedom of
individuals in a society.An underpinning assumption in a market
economy is that consumers have freedom of choice,if only for the
practical reason that this is how a ...