Solution Manual for
Business Law with UCC Applications 16e Sukys
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Chapter 1
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Answers to Text Problems
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PART 1 ETHICS, LAW, AND THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM
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Chapter 1 Ethics, Social Responsibility, and the Law
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Case in Point Questions
(Note: The answers to these questions can be found in the Case in Point features at the
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opening of each chapter in BLUCCA 16 or in the text of each chapter. Consequently, to
ensure accuracy, the answers are taken directly from the Cases in Point feature and/or the
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text. Student answers should reflect this, but should either be written in the student‘s own
words or, when quoted, cited appropriately.)
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1. Answers will vary. Accept all well-reasoned answers based on one of the ethical
options covered in Chapter 1.
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2. Answers will vary. Accept all well-reasoned answers based on one of the ethical
options covered in Chapter 1.
3. Answers will vary. Accept all well-reasoned answers based on one of the ethical
options covered in Chapter 1.
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4. Yes. Max Weber argues that two-levels of morality exist, represented by the ethic of
ultimate ends for individuals and an ethic of responsibility for national leaders. The
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ethic of ultimate ends must be practiced by individuals because individuals can never
completely foresee ―the ultimate ends‖ of their actions. Therefore, individuals must
obey absolute moral precepts, such as ―always help the poor and less fortunate,‖ or
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, "turn the other cheek," or "always tell the truth,‖ despite the fact that the ultimate
consequences of those actions are unclear or uncomfortable.
On the other hand, the ethic of responsibility demands that moral actors—in this case,
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national leaders—must consider their responsibilities to those people who depend on
those leaders for safety and security. So, for example, if a neighboring nation is
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belligerent, aggressive, or determined to fight ancient cultural, religious, and ethnic
wars, the leaders of the first nation cannot ignore that threat, as much as they might
want to. In short, they are not permitted to ―turn the other cheek‖ because to do so
would endanger the innocent people they have the duty to protect. Unfortunately,
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many national leaders fail to see this distinction. The leaders of the United States
have been especially guilty of this shortsightedness.
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5. The existence of the social contract permits people to live together in peace and
harmony, but it does not permit anyone, not even the leader, to violate the core rights
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of life and security. Should a leader consistently violate core rights, then the people
have a duty to demand that such oppressive and dangerous behavior end.
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Questions for Review and Discussion
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1. The law is a set of rules made by the government to promote stability, harmony, and
justice. Morality involves the values that are the foundation for moral decision
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making. Ethics is a way to figure out what those values might be.
2. Traditional natural law sees law as originating from an objective, superior force that
stands outside the everyday experience of most people. Historically, natural law had
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its origin in the classical Judeo-Christian belief in a Divinity that created, controls,
and rules the physical universe according to a set of universal laws that came from the
will of the Divinity. Similarly, modern natural law also sees law as originating from
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an objective origin point; however, that origin point is neither transcendent nor
supernatural but is, instead, conceived of by the human mind. Thus, the source of
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natural law comes from within the mind of social philosophers, such as Thomas
Hobbes, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, and Jean Paul Sartre, each of whom
claimed to have found the correct objective standard of human morality.
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, 3. Non-judgmentalism is the tendency to be tolerant of every type of behavior even the
most reprehensible acts imaginable, so that, in turn, your own most reprehensible
actions will not be judged by others. In contrast, hyper-intolerance can be defined as
open hostility to the views, ideas, traditions, and principles of belief held and
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practiced by others.
4. The social contract option holds that right and wrong are measured by the obligations
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imposed on everyone by an implied agreement or contract among all the people
within a particular social system.
5. The steps in applying utilitarianism are as follows:
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a. The action to be evaluated should be stated in unemotional, general terms. For
example, ―stealing another person‘s property‖ is emotional language;
―confiscating property for one‘s own use‖ is somewhat less emotional.
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b. Every person or class of people that will be affected by the action must be
identified.
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c. Good and bad consequences in relation to those people affected must be
considered.
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d. All alternatives to the action stated in step 1 must be considered.
e. Once step 4 has been carried out, a conclusion must be reached. Whichever
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alternative creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people affected by
the action is the one that ought to be taken.
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6. The rational option is a philosophical theory that asserts unequivocally that human
beings, because of their innate capacity for rational thought, can determine the nature
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and application of ethical values. The theory assumes that because all human beings
are rational, all human beings ought to have the same ethical values. Therefore,
rational ethics can establish universal rules of behavior that always apply to all
people. For this reason, the rational option is often referred to as objective ethics or
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normative ethics. Since the rational option also focuses on duties rather than rights, it
is also called deontological ethics. In its pure form, the word deontological means
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"words of duty" coming from the Greek words deon, duty, and logos, word or
utterance.
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, 7. Many of the misunderstandings about moral decisions within the world today exist
because people do not understand the dual nature of international morality. The
twentieth century philosopher, Max Weber explains the problem in his essay,
"Politics as a Vocation." In that essay, Weber argues that, often people make the
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error of assuming that political morality and personal morality are identical. Instead,
Weber proposes a dual system of morality represented by the "ethic of ultimate ends"
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and the "ethic of responsibility." The "ethic of ultimate ends" must be practiced by
individuals while the "ethic of responsibility" must be practiced by national leaders.
8. Corporations owe society a level of responsibility because the government has
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granted them certain legal advantages.
9. Our society needs law and the legal system to give it structure, harmony,
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predictability, and justice.
10. The law and ethics can sometimes benefit from anarchy, but only when what emerges
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from that period of anarchy is a system supported by legal and ethical harmony.
When the forces of human energy and justice are harnessed properly such harmony
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may result. Energy is found in a society that manages to redirect the collective human
will toward the welfare of the entire species, instead of toward individual or corporate
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survival measured only by monetary gain. Justice is present when all people are
treated equally based on an intangible quality, like fairness, that has nothing to do
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with money.
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Cases for Analysis
Special Directions to the Instructor: It is virtually impossible to predict the wide
variety of answers that students will provide for the ethical cases outlined at the end of
Chapter 1. Therefore, the instructor should not be looking for ―right‖ and ―wrong‖
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answers in the conventional sense. Instead, the instructor should look to see that the
ethical theories are applied correctly and consistently.
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1. Using rational ethics, the governor‘s actions must follow all three elements of the
categorical Imperative. First, since rational beings recognize that they do not want to
be harmed, everyone has a duty to refrain from hurting all other rational beings. This
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