Week 1

BADM 537- Legal, Ethical, and Social Environment.

Reflection- Initial Post

Raeesa Potnis
University of the Cumberlands
1/7/2021
 The first chapter in the coursework for this semester laid the foundation for my

understanding of the law. In order to learn about business and its conduct in a legal, ethical and

social environment, it is crucial that I build my knowledge about the law, its definition, its types,

sources and purposes. The comparisons and contrasts of the types of law against each other

helped me differentiate them as well as underline their similarities and overlaps. The definition

of law from the text that struck me the most is “a body of rules of action or conduct prescribed

by the controlling authority, and having legal binding force” [ CITATION Jen18 \l 1033 ]. In addition

to the brief descriptions of various types of law, I found the purposes insightful. The functions of

law in a nation are to keep the peace, maintain the status quo, reserve individual rights, protect

minorities against majorities, promote social justice, and provide for orderly social change. In

addition to these topics, the theories of law- positive, natural, the protection of individuals and

relationships and the social construct that were discussed in the text were also very interesting.

There are various ways to interpret the written law of any nation and learning the theories of law

can help one form the basis for a study about the legal aspects of business [ CITATION Jen18 \l

1033 ].

In response to the first question posed, Franklin Felon shooting and killing two people

during a robbery would be a violation of both criminal and civil law because criminal law is a

wrong against society and civil law is a wrong against another person or persons. In this case

both the acts of crime committed qualify under the criminal and civil law definitions. The act of

robbery severely harms society since it endangers social construct and a shooting directly

endangers people in addition to taking two lives as a result of it. Both these acts infringe on the

Penal Code and hence Franklin Felon can be tried under both criminal and civil law [ CITATION

Jen18 \l 1033 ].
 The U.S. Constitution forms the basis of Constitutional Law. A Constitution is a charter

that establishes the government and the rules under which the government must run. These laws

cannot be changed or amended to or repealed. Constitutional law is the most fundamental source

of law for those systems that enact them. Some examples of constitutional law are general rights

to freedom of speech, religion, property, basic human rights and protections. Then there is

Statutory Law which can be Statutory State or Statutory Federal Law. Statutory Law at the

Federal Level can be divided into congressional law, executive orders and administrative

regulations. The sources of these laws are the responsibility that is held by different offices at the

federal level. For example, congress is responsible for congressional law, executive orders are

the responsibility of the executive branch of the federal government and administrative laws are

the responsibility of administrative agencies of the federal government. Similarly state statutory

laws can be state codes, legislature, and administrative law. Common Law is the law of local

governments such as zoning issues, municipal code, etc. including court decisions [ CITATION

Jen18 \l 1033 ].
References
Jennings, M. M. (2018). Business: Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment. Boston, MA: Cengage.