Business

Constitutional & Legal Underpinnings of Business Law
Review the Constitution in Chapter 31 (below) and choose one of the following sections of the U.S. Constitution or a specified amendment to use as the basis for your initial response:

Any of Congress’s enumerated powers under Article I, Section 8
1st Amendment
4th Amendment
5th Amendment
14th Amendment

• Identify the section of the Constitution or its amendment that you have chosen.
• Discuss how this section of the Constitution or its amendments both limit and protect business in general.
• Describe an example of how the section of the Constitution or its amendment that you have chosen could be applied to your professional life (past, present, or future).
• In your example, discuss whether the section of the Constitution you have chosen to address limits business or protects it

Section 8
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;—And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Discussion 2:
Ethics and Law
Use three philosophical theories from Chapter 4 (below) to analyze whether it is more important for a business to be ethical or lawful. Provide one example of a situation in which it seems to be more important for a business to be ethical rather than lawful, and one example of a situation in which it seems more important for a business to be lawful rather than ethical.

Philosophical Theories
The quest to discover ethical truths has led Western philosophers on some very different paths throughout the past 2,500 years. Law inevitably reflects a society’s ethical views and values. Therefore, even a brief glimpse at some of the core principles that underlie various systems of ethics can be very useful. This study will enhance our understanding of the common thread of ethics that runs through every nation’s system of jurisprudence.

Ethical absolutism is an ethical philosophy with many diverse branches all tied in to the central idea that there are certain universal standards by which to measure morality. Under this philosophy, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, and justice have a separate objective existence that can be discovered and understood by human beings through philosophical inquiry and introspection. Right and wrong are concepts that stand on their own and do not change based on circumstances or on the outcome of a person’s actions. If stealing is wrong, then it is always wrong, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it. Thus, stealing is always morally wrong, whether it is done out of greed, for sport, or to feed a hungry child. Proponents of this broad branch of ethics represent a wide range of schools of thought that often include diametrically opposed worldviews.

Like ethical absolutism, religious fundamentalism as a theory of ethics relies on the existence of certain immutable truths. Unlike ethical absolutism, however, which requires that these values be discovered through philosophical inquiry and introspection, ethical norms under religious fundamentalism can be found by studying the lives and writings of prophets or by consulting holy scriptures. Under this philosophy, living a moral life depends upon strict adherence to religious principles and values. Also, its proponents often view theocracy (a state governed by divinely revealed principles) as the most just form of government.

Utilitarianism has as its ethical basis the assignment of value to actions based on their outcome. Under utilitarianism, the ultimate good is defined as actions intended to bring about the greatest utility (or greatest good) for the greatest number of people. Thus, moral action under utilitarianism requires the constant evaluation of actions based on their intended result. Actions that bring about the greatest good to the greatest number of people are ethical, or good, whereas actions that fall short of that goal are unethical, or wrong. Put another way, utilitarianism does not recognize an intrinsic value to actions but rather assigns a positive or negative moral judgment to actions only in view of their intended consequences.

Deontology is a duty-based ethical theory that focuses on individual rights and good intentions. In this school of thought, an act’s morality depends on the actor’s motive, and the only unconditionally good motive is duty. Therefore, for an act to be moral or good, it must be undertaken out of a sense of duty. Unlike utilitarianism, in deontology, the rights of the individual are very important and there are some things one should not do, even if they would benefit a large number of people.

Like utilitarianism, ethical relativism denies the existence of absolute moral values. Also known as situational ethics, this system of thought holds that moral judgments cannot be made in a vacuum. Unlike utilitarianism, however, the yardstick by which to measure the morality of an act is not the common good but rather the circumstances that surrounded the person committing an act at the time it was committed. It is a precept of this philosophy that a person’s actions cannot be judged other than by placing oneself in the same situation that the actor faced at that point in time. So, stealing to feed one’s hungry child, for example, is not necessarily wrong. On a societal level, ethical relativism acknowledges differences among cultures (cultural relativism) in the definition of right and wrong, which means that what is considered wrong or even hateful in one culture may be acceptable in another.

Nihilism is a philosophy that denies the existence of any ethical standards. Derived from the Latin word for nothing, nihilism originated as a German philosophical movement that was popularized in 19th-century Russia and that is central to the political philosophy of anarchists, who reject all centralized authority. In nihilism, we find the ultimate rejection of order, absolute codes of behavior, or the existence of any transcendent truths. Assuming that each individual’s will, guided by the individual’s conscience, can dictate what is right or wrong, then centralized government with its “arbitrary” laws and sanctions represents an illegitimate, oppressive restraint on individual freedom.

Virtue ethics looks at the basic values one needs to develop to have a good moral character. We develop these traits by making personal commitments and practicing them in our lives. Some of the virtues we can encourage are honesty, truth, trust, tolerance, kindness, diligence, and self-restraint. We can learn as well as absorb these qualities from our parents, religion, and schools or consciously choose to strive to be virtuous persons. This philosophy has practical application in the business world because we can model, encourage, and reward these traits among our employees and within our companies.

Justice ethics is based on the concept of fairness. This theory is closely related to deontology and the rights of the individual. The U.S. legal system has a strong grounding in procedural justice and is focused on judicial process. Many of our constitutional rights protect the integrity of the legal process and ensure that all people are treated fairly in the courts. We also find this philosophy in the procedures and consistent rules that businesses create for their employees and other stakeholders. In a similar fashion, appellate judges decide cases that set precedents that apply to all of us. They must balance doing justice for the individuals involved in the case with the ramifications of how decisions will affect future case law and society as a whole.
Writing Center.?
ORDER THIS ESSAY HERE NOW AND GET A DISCOUNT !!!