Putting the Law in Its Place: Business Ethics and the Assumption that Illegal Implies Unethical

Carson Young ()
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Carson Young: University of Pennsylvania

Journal of Business Ethics, 2019, vol. 160, issue 1, No 3, 35-51

Abstract: Abstract Many business ethicists assume that if a type of conduct is illegal, then it is also unethical. This article scrutinizes that assumption, using the rideshare company Uber’s illegal operation in the city of Philadelphia as a case study. I argue that Uber’s unlawful conduct was permissible. I also argue that this position is not an extreme one: it is consistent with a variety of theoretical commitments in the analytic philosophical tradition regarding political obligation (i.e. the moral duty to obey the law because it is the law). I conclude by showing why business ethicists would have a better rejoinder to the “dominant view” of business ethics associated with Milton Friedman if they dispensed with the assumption that illegal implies unethical.

Keywords: Analytic philosophy; Political obligation; Political philosophy; Corporate social responsibility; Legal disobedience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-018-3904-4

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