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COMM 315 - Midterm 1 notes Business Law and Ethics (Concordia University)
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lOMoAR cPSD| 6353920COMM 315 - Midterm 1 notes
Business Law and Ethics
(Concordia University)
, lOMoAR cPSD| 6353920
Comm 315
Chapter 1
What is the Definition of Law?
● A system of rules and regulations that govern a community and enforced by a political
authority and its legal system.
● “A system of principles and rules of human conduct, being the aggregate of those
commandments and principles which are either prescribed or recognized by the
governing power in an organized jural society as its will in relation to the conduct of the
members of such a society, and which it undertakes to maintain and sanction and use as
the criteria of the actions of such members.” Black’s Law Dictionary, 1891.
● Law is a set of rules and guidelines by which a society has come to accept as a way of
living and conducting itself
Origins of Law
Over time, individuals found it more useful and productive to co-operate with each other in
communities, rather than living separate and apart from each other. For such a community to
function effectively and grow, though, some order for regulating its activities was necessary.
● Order, it was believed, would ensure the security of the people of the community. The
people needed to know that they would be protected from those causing them harm.
● It would also provide certainty or stability so that people could plan and contract for the
future.
● To achieve this goal, communities set up some basic rules that states the kind of
behaviour considered proper for the members of that particular community. These rules
would be applied to all the people in the community from the framework within which
they carried on their daily activities.
Early example of written law is the codification of the law, engraved on a stone column, by the
legal scholars in the time of King Hammurabi of Babylon in 2100 B.C.
Specialization of skills over time forced greater interaction and dependency between people. This
greater interaction required rules and regulations to maintain order within a community by
providing:
1. Security of each member
2. Certainty for future planning
, lOMoAR cPSD| 6353920
In some communities, these rules developed as customs or traditions. In other communities, they
were written down (Early example of written law is the Code of Hammurabi engraved in a stone
column). Early homogenous communities needed simple laws.
Over time, laws needed to be more complex because:
1.Population increased
2.Technological advances
3.Immigration patterns
Role of Law in Society Today:
● Law ensures security. It has an important peace-keeping function through which it
minimizes disruptions of the equilibrium in society. It does this by providing for
punishment of those who seriously disturb our social order. In addition, the law enables
those who suffer loss or damage because of the conduct of others, to obtain
compensation.
● Law establishes and enforces standards of conduct in the community. It tells people what
kind of behaviour is not acceptable, thereby reducing friction between citizens.
● Law maintains the status quo. This means that standards of conduct stated in the law
remain in force until changed by the lawmaking authority. The amendments allow for
changes to take place in an orderly way, avoiding disturbances and upheavals in the
social order.
● Another function of the law is to enable people to exercise their right to express
themselves as individuals.
● Our laws allow us to use our rights as freely as possible, as long as we do not interfere
with the right of others to do the same thing. The civil law would regard such
interferences as an ―abuse of rights.‖
Who decides?
● Sometimes a community as a whole decides what will be considered as the law through
custom and usage.
● In other countries, a group of people may declare themselves ―rulers.‖ If they control the
power to enforce rules of behaviour they consider proper, they will be ―in authority‖ to
make new laws for everyone.
● In countries where people believe in the principles of democracy, the people themselves
determine who will make the laws that govern them. They choose, by election, a group of
people who will form a ―government‖ for a limited period of time.
○ These elected lawmakers are given the authority, during their term of office, to
cancel old laws they no longer consider valid and to pass new laws they consider
, lOMoAR cPSD| 6353920
necessary. i.e. the Quebec government repealed the old Civil Code and brought
into the law a new and very different Civil Code in 1993.
● The lawmaking authority can be controlled by a dictator, a religious leader, the military,
or by the population itself.
● In Canada, most people seem to agree on the principle that each individual in the
community should participate in selecting the lawmakers. This springs from the idea that
in this way, the laws will be designed to allow maximum freedom for everyone, while
still providing for harmony within the community.
Who Decides the Law:
1. The community through custom and tradition
2. An elder or the ―wisest‖ man of the community
3. A ruler and conqueror of lands
4. Through democracy
Why Doesn’t Law Always Equal Justice?
● The words of the law are clear. They tell us what is permitted or prohibited. The judges
apply the law, and we can seek justice in how the law is applied.
○ Not every case will have the same results, because each is different, and the judge
will apply the law differently.
1. The law is written
· Difficult to deter from and rigid (objective)
· No emotion or feeling in the words
2. Enforced by judges
· Judge has discretion in how a law is applied (subjective)
3. Laws are decided upon by a majority
· Can’t always answer the needs of all, especially the minority
· Majority of those who hold power will occasionally impose their standard on
the nation
How Do We Define Ethics?
A set of principles or moral values of a society, distinguishing right from wrong.
Is Law and Ethics the Same?
Law can reflect ethical values but the two can also conflict. It can be argued that ethics and law
are one in the same, since ethics is a set of principles or moral values of a society, distinguishing
right from wrong, and law reflects these values. While this may be true, it is not uncommon for a
law and an ethical principle to contradict each other.
o Legal and unethical i.e. A Canadian company manufactures its products in a
developing country, so as to take advantage of cheap labour, is acting within the law.
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