Abstract
The central claim of the chapter is that business managers cannot manage by the principle, “If it is legal, it is morally permissible.” I begin this chapter by showing that often a legal decision is based on moral principles rather than existing law. These moral principles of justice and fairness are adopted from common morality. Closer examination shows that fairness requires non-coercion, no great inequality of bargaining power and no abuse of information asymmetry. The prudent strategy for the manager of a business is to follow morality.
This chapter is an updated version of Sections I–V of my “Fair Markets” in Journal of Business Ethics 7 (1988) 89–97. This chapter contains a number of new arguments for the position argued in that paper. Material from the original article is reprinted by permission of Springer.
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Notes
- 1.
Stone, Christopher D. (1973). Where the Law Ends. New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
- 2.
Quoted from Business and Its Legal Environment, Thomas W. Dunfee, Janice R. Bellace, and Arnold Rosoff (eds.), 1983. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 209.
- 3.
Mienhard v.Salmon (1928) 164 N.E. 545 at 223.
- 4.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/content/nlra-act.html, Downloaded September 18, 2012.
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Ibid.
- 6.
Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors (1960) Supreme Court of New Jersey 161 A2d 61.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
E.I DuPont de Nemours & Co. Inc., v Christopher (1970) Justice Goldberg 431 F2d 1012.
- 10.
Unocal v Mesa Petroleum Co.
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Unocal v Mesa Petroleum Co. (1985) 493 A2d at 956.
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Ibid.
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National Labor Relations Board v General Electric Company (1969) Judge Irving Kauffman, 418 F2d 736.
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Dworkin, Ronald. (1977). Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/ucc.table.html, Downloaded September 18, 2012.
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Jones v Star Credit Corporation, 1969 Supreme Court of New York 298 NYS 2d 264.
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S.E.C. v Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. (1968) United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit, 401 F2d, 833.
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Liptak, Adam. (2011). “When Fairness and the Law Collide, One Jurist is Troubled,” The New York Times National, October 18, A 18.
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Quoted in Liptak, Adam. (2012). “Justices Rule for Inmate After Mailroom Mix-Up,” The New York Times, January 19, A 11.
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http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-alien-tort-statute-at-a-crossroads-27623/, Downloaded September 29, 2012.
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Dees, Gregory. (1986). “The Ethics of Greenmail” in James E Post (ed.), Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy, Vol. 8. Greenwich: JAI Press, Inc., 165.
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Bowie, N.E. (2013). Fair Markets Revisited. In: Business Ethics in the 21st Century. Issues in Business Ethics, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6223-7_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6223-7_1
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