This week’s guest author is Professor Susan Park. Professor Park is a graduate of the University of Idaho Law School and is on the faculty of the College of Business & Economics at Boise State University, where she teaches business law. For more information on Professor Park’s work visit her webpage.
As a business law professor, the topic of ethics shows up in my classes every semester. Ethics are an important part of the business law curriculum, particularly when one considers the ongoing corporate scandals that regularly make the news. Although other faculty can, and do, teach ethics courses, it makes sense to include ethics in business law courses because the law and ethics are so closely related.
Business law textbooks often begin a discussion of ethics by observing that in most circumstances, the law sets a moral minimum. The law requires a basic level of behavior from all of us. This foundation gives students the opportunity to consider what might be required over and above simply obeying the law.
Oftentimes merely observing the law is not enough to act ethically. For example, the law does not generally impose upon corporations an obligation to behave ethically for the benefit of others beyond their shareholders, yet many believe that corporations should act for the benefit of others outside the corporation and for society as a whole. In fact, an entire body of literature has developed around the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which advocates for corporations to behave in socially responsible ways. But what does CSR mean in a given situation? Reasonable minds may have a different idea of what this means, making the topic a rich and fruitful opportunity for students to wrestle with.
The Intersection of Ethics and Law
Ethical concepts are woven into almost every legal topic we teach in business law courses, even the most mundane. Consider, for example, the law of contracts. At a basic level, a contract consists of legally enforceable promises. When we enter into a contract, we make a promise to the other party to act in a particular way that will be of benefit to them, and they make the same promise back to us. Living up to one’s promises is of course an ethical concept. Contract law also imposes upon each of the parties to a contract a basic obligation to act in good faith regarding the performance of the contract. This means that neither party can hinder the other’s ability to perform the contract. In other words, they must behave ethically so that the other party can perform.
Employment law also provides a wealth of ethical topics for students to consider and discuss. Laws related to employee compensation are a good example. Most employees are entitled to be paid at least minimum wage for the work they do, and yet minimum wage workers typically do not earn enough to pay for housing, food, medical care, etc., much less enough to support a family. This raises an ethical question for students to consider: Should companies be obligated to pay their employees a living wage? Similarly, federal law requires most employers to provide employees with up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave due to their own medical issues or the medical issues of someone they care for. However, many U.S. workers cannot afford to take twelve weeks of unpaid leave, raising another ethical issue regarding employee compensation: Should companies that can afford it provide paid leave for employees to tend to family and medical obligations?
My job as a business law professor is to teach students the law and introduce them to some of the ethical complexities that arise when the law is applied in a business environment. Robust classroom discussions about ethical issues help students learn to reason and practice making and explaining difficult ethical decisions that often arise within a business organization.