Writing Homework Help

1)Compliance with legal obligations and ethical obligations are not necessarily the same thing. What are the possible differences between those two competing goals? Is it easier to comply with the law or ethical obligations? Why?

***Use the GCU Library for sources (https://library.gcu.edu/ )

The DQ response must be at least 200 words and should have at least one reference in APA format

2) Write a 100-word response to each student in first person as if you were writing it to the students. Talk about how you agree with their ideas and add your own thoughts. Make sure it’s respectful.

Student 1: Both legal and ethical standards are there to help people, legal obligations are based on the government’s laws and ethical obligations are based on human principles of what is right and what is wrong. Something can be legal but not ethical. Although they are not necessarily the same thing, both legal and ethical obligations are rules and principles, they both allow authority to law breakers to keep people safe from others as well. An example of legal standard/ obligation would be driving around and seeing “No Parking” this would demonstrate a legal standard, which tells us what we legally can not do and to enforce rules. Ethical standards on the other hand would be if you see one parking space and another car approaches the legal standard would be to let the other car have it and not fight for it or give it to the person who was there first, now say if you got to the parking spot first but someone steals if from you, this would violate ethical standard but not legal, legal standards are written by government officials while ethical standards are ran by societal norms, it might be easier to uphold ethics which has a higher standard, According tot he article Why ethics and law are not the same thing, Ethics provides us with guides on what is the right thing to do in all aspects of life, while the law generally provides more specific rules so that societies and their institutions can be maintained. Ethics engages our thinking and also our feelings, including those of disgust and guilt. The law does not tell us what to do in relation to many of the dilemmas and decisions we have to make in life.

References:

Why ethics and law are not the same thing. INTHEBLACK. (2019, July 10). https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2015/04/01/why-ethics-and-law-are-not-the-same-thing.

Student 2: To begin, legal obligation is “obligation is a civil law concept. An obligation can be created voluntarily, such as obligation arising from a contract, quasi-contract, unilateral promise. An obligation can also be created involuntarily, such as an obligation arising from torts or a statute” (Legal Information Institute).. When looking at this definition from a police officer’s perspective, this should include their department’s policies and procedures, as well as the local and state laws. This means that they can’t just conduct a search on a person’s home; the rights of every American must be protected. It also means that if a violation of the law has occurred they must do something about it; giving tickets for speeding for example.

On the other hand, ethical obligations are more difficult to explain in a criminal justice system. Banks describes it as “more demanding” than a legal obligation because there is so much room for error and differences between personal values and morals (300). An example given by Banks is that according to some philosophers, a plea deal is morally incorrect.

According to Christoffel Visser’s piece, “Rothenberg argues that very difficult ethical issues in legal practice arise due to the tensions inherent in legal practitioners’ competing responsibilities towards their clients, the legal system and the quality of justice. Tertiary legal training, it is argued here, should empower students with foundational standards and skills beyond codes of conduct to assist them in exploring these issues in terms of what is right and wrong, instead of what is acceptable to win a case” He also states that “To assist lawyers in avoiding ethical pitfalls and ambiguity in deciding on what is right and wrong, the legal profession has developed a system of professional codes and rules of conduct by which its members must abide. But while these codes and rules of conduct establish wide parameters of acceptable and unacceptable conduct, they do not inform on fit and proper character and moral formation.”

Overall, I personally believe that it would be easier to comply with legal obligations over ethics. The law is more set and to a standard than an individual’s ethics are which makes it easier to solve the issue. The law protects both parties and is there to give justice where it is due. However the Lawyer’s Dilemma would seem to be difficult when deciding how you are going to go about a case.

Legal Information Institute: Obligation. (n.d.). Retrieved June 19, 2021, from

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/obligation

Van Zyl IV, C. H., & Visser, J.-M. (2016). Legal Ethics, Rules of Conduct and the Moral

Compass — Considerations from a Law Student’s Perspective. Potchefstroom

Electronic Law Journal, 19(1), 1–18.

https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2016/v19ni0a795