Ethical Values: The Relationship Between Law And Ethics

Ethics is the moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity. It is the moral values that a person believes in. The way that a person interacts with others. The golden rule of treating others how you would like to be treated. Having good ethics is a basis for having a successful business.

What is ethics? According to Velasquez et al (2010), “ethics is a well-founded standard of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations,

Ethics is defined as moral principles that administer a person’s behaviour. It is the basic perception and essential principle of decent human conduct. Issues concerning unethical approach are known as ethical issues.

First, it is important to define ethics and how its components play an extensive role in our society. The term ethics is defined as “Moral principles that govern a person 's behaviour or the conducting of an activity.” (Oxford); ethical decisions are the ones that per se determine whether or not murder is wrong. Likewise, ethics consists of different ramifications and perspectives from many philosophers. Moreover,

The word law is defined as a system of principles and regulations of ethics and rules in order to keep people and also things in line, a set of rules of conduct. There are many functions of law in business and in society. Without the functions of laws many companies, etc. could and would not survive. Law is very valuable within businesses. Businesses have to have law because it is used as a protective shield for the companies. Without laws, companies could have lawsuits placed on them. So laws are put into place to help avoid as many lawsuits as possible. A majority of

According to Merriam-Webster, ethics is defined as an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior. Some would argue that definition is rather vague. A more complete understanding of ethics would suggest that it is more than just an area of study but rather a way of life; moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. If one is ethical and has good moral standards, it is usually seen in that person. Simply put, ethics could be considered the standards of behavior as to which society accepts.

Laws are the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.(google)

According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, ethics is defined as “moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behavior.” Therefore, in an ideal world, ethics should play the ultimate role when making a decision. If ethics are the principles which guides one’s behavior then, ideally, all decisions should be made entirely based on ethics. Unfortunately, such is not always the case.

Ethics refer to the values that guide a person, organization or society - - the difference between right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, honesty and dishonesty.

The development of ethics has truly reflected the structure of sustained laws throughout society. Ethics has been used to influence right and wrong behavior, while laws are used to regulate individuals/society decisions and behavior. In reference to the literature, Criminal Justice Ethics by Cyndi Banks (2013), “Ethics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of right and wrong and how ought to live. Ethics involves making moral judgments about what is right or wrong, good or bad” (Pg.2). Ethics are used as a moral judgment on a typical matter based accordingly to certain cultures and/or societies, but what do laws account for in society? According to Law Versus Ethics in Management by Susan M. Anstead (1999), “Law can be defined

According to Guido, ethics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the evaluation of human action. A broader definition would be that ethics involves the principles or assumptions underpinning the way individuals or groups ought to conduct themselves.

The purpose of laws is to protect its citizens. Laws are written and approved by the three main bodies of government, and then are enforced by the police and with the help of the legal system

While law and ethics are two separate things, they do overlap some circumstances. The overlap shows that some things that are legal are also ethical but not all law is ethical. The same would apply for the ethics, there are some form of ethics that are not universal and, therefore, not written into law. This diagram represents what most people who consider the “textbook” overlap of laws and ethics, but we see a diagram that shows that within both of these groups, there is a lot of room for personal interpretation. Something that one person might find ethical, another person may consider unethical, and this shows the broad range of those feelings. It could be said that the law is essentially the ethical lowest common denominator. A clear illustration of the legal versus ethical standard is that it is clearly not against the law to cut in line at a coffee shop. However, it is considered unethical to most. Line cutters violate the “unwritten rules” for line formation and order (Business Ethics, pg. 11).

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with the principles correlated to human behavior concerning the rightness and wrongness of specific conduct, and to the good and bad that influences and ends those actions (Ditonary.com, 2011). In other words, ethics is the choice people effect in regards to a decision they need to achieve. Without ethics directing the choice an individual makes, moral preferences of what should or should not be done becomes irrelevant. While ethical decisions are made every day there are two different regions in which these choices are made.

Law is the expression of the will of the society. Its virtue or vice depends on the social conscience at a given time. A bad law is a manifestation of an aberration in a body politic of the conscience of the society.