Principles of Law

Industrial and business practices are governed by many laws on the international, federal, state and local levels. Lots of these laws are based on moral philosophy even though many are purely of a practical, rather than a theoretical nature. There is also a difference between what is lawful and what is ethical. Lots of things that are lawful could be measured unethical. For instance, designing a process that releases a known toxic, but unfettered matter into the surroundings is possibly immoral although it is lawful. Conversely, just because something is against the law does not mean that it is unprincipled. For example, there might be material that were once thought to be harmful, but have now been shown to be safe, that you wish to include into manufactured goods. If the rule has not wedged up with the latest scientific results, it might be against the law to releases these substances into the surroundings, even though there is no moral difficulty with doing so. As an engineer, you are always simply safe if you follow the needs of the applicable laws. But in industrial ethics, we seek to go away from the dictates of the law. Our attention is in areas where ethical main beliefs conflict and there is no legal direction for how to resolve the clash