Laws And Ethics For Journal Of Empirical Legal Studies

The difference between negligence and an intentional tort

Describe about the Laws and Ethics for Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

Discuss the difference between negligence and an intentional tort. Analyze and evaluate the various issues presented while arguing and debating the connections between business, law, politics, and ethics

Tort law in the United States of America is divided into two primary branches namely negligence and the intention tort. Negligence is termed as a failure to exercise duty of care, which a prudent and reasonable man would exercise in similar circumstances. Moreover, an intentional tort is a civil wrong which is intentionally committed by certain action or conduct of the wrongdoer (Goldberg & Zipursky, 2010).

The primary difference between negligence and intentional tort is that under intentional tort, there is an additional onus on plaintiff to establish and prove that the defendant acted with wrongful intent which leads to the injuries suffered by the plaintiff. Thus, under negligence, the individual who caused injuries to the plaintiff did not intend o do the same however, the are punished under law for her carelessness however in intentional tort, the defendant is required to have the intend to cause harm to plaintiff (Coleman, 2010). Example of carelessness are the various negligent cases filed in the American Courts like an individual waking on the road swinging his umbrella unintentionally hits a child playing on the road whereas the examples of intentional torts are cases on trespass, battery, false imprisonment, defamation and assault. Thus, motive is the primary difference between negligence and intentional tort.

Many a times companies intentionally or unintentionally commit offences which result into negligence or other tort claims against them. In this situation, the companies require to balance between what is ethical and what is beneficial. When it comes to intentional torts which companies commit to gain additional profits, the companies have to decision on how to handle the situation when the said intentional offence of tort is caught. At that time, the company defending its case even after knowing its wrongful intention which caused harm to other is unethical however, companies most of the times, elect to go the unethical way in order to save its reputation and avoid paying compensation to injured parties who suffered harm. However, when it comes to negligence claims against companies, an effort to settle the case is elected in order o save a company’s reputation and profits. Thus, the dilemma to balance between ethics and law and self-interest, most companies fail miserably and tend o choose a course of action which may be legal according to the law prescribed in the United States of America but is most of the times unethical in nature which only results in benefiting the company and ignoring the welfare of the community as a whole.

Balancing ethics and law in the business world

If Congress passed a law making an activity specifically legal, would that automatically make it ethical? Why or why not? Analyze and evaluate the various issues presented while arguing and debating the connections between business, law, politics, and ethics

If a Congress passed a law making activity specifically legal, it does not automatically become ethical in nature. An activity being legal refers to the said activity being permitted by the United States of America’s law and backed by statutory sanction. However, an activity being ethical is determined based on its relation to moral principles and cultural values. Thus, an activity can be legal and at the same time unethical. Not everything that the Congress makes legal is always ethical (Giacalone & Promislo, 2010). For example, many states in the United States of America have given limited sanction to gambling activities in order to raise funds without increasing taxation. Thus, around 20 states in United States of America allow commercial casino, lotteries, poker games which is legal however the same is not ethical. Therefore, many laws are passed by the Congress which suggests an individual to act in a manner which is best for his wellbeing and interest, thus, these laws are governed by practical consideration, and however it is not important to everything practical to also be ethical. For example, many states require permit to own a gun and many states make it illegal altogether for a regular citizen to own a gun, whatever the law be in the said context, owning a gun is ethical in every form however, it is prudent in certain cases for personal safety. Thus, many legal activities are not considered ethical however it is necessary to sanction he same by law based on certain reasonable grounds and considerations.  

Most of the companies and business houses in United States of America have to deal with the dilemma and balance between compliance with state laws and coping with the political environment of the state and he country for achieving success and profits. Most of the times, political events in a country affect the business operations of many companies creating many unethical situations for the companies. Thus, most of the times, companies have to determine between what is right to do in a certain situation which will benefit another company or group of individual even when the said adversely affects or proves detrimental to their interest. Thus, due to various laws and political doctrines being legal but not ethical companies are forced to decide between course of actions which benefits all or which benefits their individual interests. Thus, business, law, ethics and politics are all interlinked o each other (Jacob, Decker & Hartshorne, 2010).

Congress passed laws and ethics’ connection to business, law, politics

References:

Giacalone, R. A., & Promislo, M. D. (2010). Unethical and unwell: Decrements in well-being and unethical activity at work. Journal of Business Ethics, 91(2), 275-297.

Jacob, S., Decker, D. M., & Hartshorne, T. S. (2010). Ethics and law for school psychologists. John Wiley & Sons.

Discuss the ethics of the situation where a lifetime warranty is defined as based on the “life of the product.” Analyze and evaluate the various issues presented while arguing and debating the connections between business, law, politics, and ethics

Most of the times, companies market their products claiming to provide a lifetime warranty for the same. This concept of lifetime warranty attracts many consumers and they buy products based on the belief that the company will repair or replace the product if any defect arises in the product throughout its life. However, this myth is soon broken with all the terms and conditions and disclaimers which are attached to this life time warranty claim of companies. The concept of life time warranty is attached with many disclaimers like lifetime warranty of only manufacturing defects and sometimes the said term is even limited with a time span of 5 years or so on (Sahyouni, Savaskan & Daskin, 2010). Thus, “life time warranty” is never really a promise of service to the consumer for a lifetime; it is in fact just used as a promotional and marketing technique which is unethical in nature. Most of times, life time warrant is only provide to the immediate purchaser or the consumer of a product, thus in cases where a product is purchased in order to gift it to someone, the services and the claim of lifetime warranty expires. Thus, the ethical issue when lifetime warranty is defined as “life of the product” is that customers are not made aware of the disclaimers and terms and conditions attached to the said life time warranty claims.

Thus, there are certain ethical issues which need to be considered in theses sort of transactions. The main aim of a seller is nothing but to sell the product by hook or crook (Ye et al., 2013).

In order to sell a product the seller basically incorporate such terms and conditions which are actually not true. Sometimes they also seek to undertake an obligation under a sale agreement which they know that they will never fulfil. The manufacturers and the sellers thus need to be more careful while they are delivering a product in the hands of the consumers. Otherwise, the consumers may lose faith in the product which may be have an adverse effect on the brand. If a brand fails to win the loyalty and faith of consumers, they are bound to lose them and they will fail miserably in the long run. Thus, it is prudent as well as important for the sellers not to use such fake terms related to their products in order to attract consumers.

Defining lifetime warranties as ‘life of the product’

References:

Sahyouni, K., Savaskan, R. C., & Daskin, M. S. (2010). The effect of lifetime buys on warranty repair operations. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 61(5), 790-803.

Ye, Z. S., Murthy, D. P., Xie, M., & Tang, L. C. (2013). Optimal burn-in for repairable products sold with a two-dimensional warranty. IIE Transactions, 45(2), 164-176.

What makes something a trade secret? What steps should a company take to ensure that a trade secret remains a trade secret? Analyze and evaluate the various issues presented while arguing and debating the connections between business, law, politics, and ethics.

A trade secret can be considered as any confidential business information through which an enterprise may have a competitive edge. Trade secrets include industrial secrets or manufacturing secrets or commercial secrets. If any person uses such information without being authorised to use such trade secret, then he commits a violation of trade secret.  Protection of trade secret is a part of the concept of protection against unfair competition. The subject matter of trade secrets usually include consumer profiles, strategies for advertising, list of clients and suppliers, methods of distribution, processes of manufacturing and methods of sales. But what exactly would be the trade secret of a particular company or a particular industry depends on the circumstances and each individual case (Robertson et al., 2015).

The steps which are taken by companies to ensure that a trade secret remain a trade secret are as follows:

• Establishment of confidentiality measures and physical or electronic security.
• Establishment of due diligence procedures and procedures for managing third party.
• Institution of team which would be responsible for protecting information
• Creation of policies or procedures or agreements or records for protecting documents or information
• Assessment of risks for identifying and prioritizing vulnerabilities of trade secret
• Establishment of sessions for training employees and third parties
• Measuring and monitoring of corporate effects
• Initiation of corrective actions and taking steps towards continuous improvement of procedures and policies (Reder & O’Brien, 2012).

The companies, by adopting these steps may ensure that their novel and unique policies and strategies are kept secret. The sharing of these trade secrets would be highly unfruitful to the companies and they may lose out important contracts and opportunities. Thus, the companies are ought to take very strict measures in order to ensure that these secrets are not shared with an outsider.

Trade secrets undoubtedly need to be kept secret for succeeding in the present day competitive market. But there are certain unfair practices which may be practiced by companies and the companies may try to keep it a secret.  In this way various activities may be secretly done by companies. In those circumstances it is not feasible to keep those terms secret anymore. As for example a company may adopt an anti-competitive policy and may incorporate such policies within trade secrets. It may also require its employees and other persons interested in the business to keep such terms secret. This kind of approach would affect the competition at large and may be extremely harmful for an economy.

References:

Reder, M. E., & O’Brien, C. N. (2012). Managing the risk of trade secret loss due to job mobility in an innovation economy with the theory of inevitable disclosure.

Robertson, K. M., Hannah, D. R., & Lautsch, B. A. (2015). The secret to protecting trade secrets: How to create positive secrecy climates in organizations. Business Horizons, 58(6), 669-677.

The representatives of credit card companies state that the law does not need to get involved because competition will resolve any problems. Discuss the potential power differential between the credit-card company and the consumer in contracts. Analyze and evaluate the various issues presented while arguing and debating the connections between business, law, politics, and ethics.

In a contract between a credit card company, the credit card companies will have undoubtedly advantage in terms of determining the terms and conditions of the contract. People who are in need of money approach the credit card companies and it is more likely that they should readily agree to whatever terms and conditions are determined by the credit card companies. (Henry et al., 2013).

However, there are several ethical issues involved in these kinds of agreements. Though the representative of credit card companies are of the belief that law does not need to play any role, competition alone will resolve all problems, but things are not so easy. Seeing the kind of influential and bargaining power of the credit card companies in terms of deciding the terms of a contract with a consumer, there surely needs some regulation which would govern these contracts. (Drahozal & Rutledge 2012).

Competition is inevitable for the growth of an economy. Anti-competitive measures are ought to be taken by every companies to ensure growth of an industry. Healthy competition ensures healthy business environment and to take strict steps against monopolistic approach. In a competitive environment, every companies get fair chance and opportunity to foster their growth and business. A fair competition ensures that all the companies come to a common platform build customer loyalty through their own strategies and policies. The credit card industry may flourish in the same way and people would approach those companies which offer the best terms and policies for giving credit.

The credit card companies have an expectation that internal wrangles from their rivals would be solved through competition. They believe that they would be able to do business without being regulated by law. An employer starts a new relationship with consumers and other stakeholders in a similar way as it starts a relationship with its employees. The credit card companies believe that they would be able to maintain a relationship of faith and belief with the loyal consumers. The credit card companies and the employees will protect each others’ interests in the long run and their relationship would be based on mutual trust and benefit. But this arrangement would encompass ethical issues because there are certain consumers which may not be willing to repay. In those cases, conflict may arise between the companies and the consumers. The involvement of law is inevitable under such circumstances because competition cannot always solve all problems.

References:

Drahozal, C. R., & Rutledge, P. B. (2012). Arbitration Clauses in Credit Card Agreements: An Empirical Study. Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 9(3), 536-566.

Henry, P., Garbarino, E., & Voola, R. (2013). Metacognitions about consumer protection and individual responsibility in the credit card domain. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 32(1), 32-44.