Bus 290 Law & Ethics

Bus 340 – Law and Ethics in the Business Environment

Spring 2014

Associate Professor L. Johnson, PhD, JD

McIntyre Hall Room 111F

(253) 879-2870 (Please feel free to leave a message.)

Office Hours:

Please check “Announcements” in Moodle for changes to office hours, which may be made if necessary to meet the demands of other university business. If office hour changes are necessary, those changes will be posted there.

Mondays 2:30 pm – 3:45 pm, EXCEPT 3/24, when office hours are cancelled

Wednesdays 10:30 am – noon, EXCEPT 4/23, when office hours are cancelled

Tuesdays & Thursday by appointment only (appointments on Tuesday and Thursdays may be scheduled between 7:00 am – 7:45 am and at 12:30 pm)

Sign-up sheet for Monday and Wednesday office hours are on my office door. Please sign up if you need to see me during office hours. You can also simply stop by during the Monday and Wednesday office hours if you need to see me.

If you need an appointment outside of regular Monday or Wednesday office hours, appointment requests must be made by email. If a student does not show up for a scheduled appointment outside of regular Monday or Wednesday office hours, then the student will need to come during regularly scheduled office hours in the future. This means that you must not schedule an appointment and then not show up.

Email policy: Email is checked one time each day between Monday and Friday. Email is not checked on Saturday or Sunday. If you send a question via email, you will receive a response. However, since email is only checked one time each weekday, then you may not receive a return email until as late as midnight the following calendar date, depending upon whether email has already been checked that day. Note, too, if you send an email on Friday, you may not receive a response until Monday.

Class Meeting Times and Room Assignment: T TH 11:00 am – 12:20 pm in Mc320

You must come to class on time. Do not arrive late. Arriving late is highly disruptive to the other students in class. Attending class is required.

Electronics in the classroom: Do not engage, use, or otherwise employ recording devices of any kind in the classroom. You may use an electronic device (e.g., computer) to read class materials, take notes, or engage in class assignments in the classroom. If you are using your computer to do anything else, then you will no longer be able to use your computer in class. You are not permitted to surf the Internet, participate in social networking sites, make or receive emails, make or receive telephone calls, take photographs, read or send texts, listen to music or other audio materials, watch videos, record audio or visual material from class or any person in class, or engage in any other activity during class that is not directly related to class activities. Your electronic devices must be silent at all times. Google Glass is prohibited. If your electronic devices are distracting, or if you violate these policies, you will not be permitted to bring your electronic devices to class in the future.

Required Materials:

Two books, both of which are accessible here:

You must go to BOTH URLs to find BOTH books.

Lau, T. & Johnson, L. (2011). The Legal and Ethical Environment of Business. Flat World Knowledge. 978-1-4533-2750-0

Mayer, D., Warner, D.M., Siedel, G.J. & Lieberman, J.K. The Legal Environment of Business, Flat World Knowledge 978-1-4533-5660-9

Alternatively, you may visit: . Using the drop down box, click onto “Professor” and then type “Lisa Johnson” in the box. You will see both books that are required for this course.

Additional readings will be assigned in class.

Course Description

This course introduces the external legal constraints that society places on business activity and behavior in its various forms, including case law from courts, statutory law from legislatures, and regulations from government agencies. In addition to these formal systems there are the informal but extremely powerful constraints imposed by generally accepted moral beliefs and norms of ethical behavior. In this course, students explore the relationship between legal and ethical standards to critically analyze and evaluate the behavior of business owners, managers, and employees.

Course Objectives

• Examine common legal and ethical issues in the business environment
• Become familiar with basic sources of law
• Survey several areas of substantive law
• Examine professional ethical perspectives
• Evaluate the interaction between law and ethics in the business environment

Course Topics

Foundations: We will examine the structure and processes of the legal environment, including contemporary sources of law such as statutory law, common law, administrative law, and constitutional law. Additionally, dispute resolution processes will be examined, including litigation and alternative dispute resolution. We will also review the impact of legal and ethical principles on business, including the concept of social responsibility, ethics in the business environment, and the concept of rights. We will also examine different business organizational forms (e.g., sole proprietorship, general partnership, LP, LLC, corporations, etc.) and benefits and drawbacks to each.

Substantive Law: We will examine the principles of contracts (common law and the UCC), bankruptcy, secured transactions, torts, criminal law, agency, employment law, and intellectual property law. We will use our work from the foundations section of this course to reach a more complete understanding of these areas. International law/global legal environment will be integrated into each substantive area via a comparative approach.

Grading Criteria: Your work will be assessed based upon points earned as shown in the table below. Remember that I do not “give” grades; rather, you earn your grade.

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is highly valued at the University of Puget Sound. Please review the University’s Academic Honesty Policy. Plagiarized documents will receive a zero.

General Expectations and Class Policies

Carefully read the entire syllabus, including this section of policies. You are responsible for knowing and abiding by all policies in the syllabus. Policies may be added as needed.

Written work & reading

Assignments must be submitted free from grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. All work written outside of class must be submitted in APA format. If you do not know how to format papers in APA, please consult with the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching.

You are expected to read and understand the material presented in the assigned readings prior to the day of class for which it is assigned. If you see a word that you do not understand, look up the definition in a dictionary. Try not to skip over words that you do not understand.

We will spend a great deal of in-class time working problems and learning legal analysis. It is essential that you prepare for each class before the class begins, so that you may apply the concepts that you learned in your reading to the in-class exercises. If you do not come to class prepared, you will not be successful in class.

Extra credit

Extra credit will not be available in this class.

Incomplete

Grades of incomplete will not be available except under extraordinary circumstances.

Late policy, class attendance policy & responsibility for assignments

If you do not attend on the day of an exam or other in-class assignment, you will earn a zero. Please note that if you miss class for any reason, it is your responsibility to catch up. I will not conduct a private lecture for you. If you miss class, do not come to my office and ask if we did “anything important.” We did. In general, late assignments will not be accepted. If you have specific permission from me to submit a late assignment, and you have secured that permission before the assignment is due, then your score will be reduced 10% per day for each day that the assignment is late. Permission will not be granted to submit a late assignment if permission is sought after the assignment is due. Do not ask me to waive the late policy. The late policy applies to all assignments.

It is your responsibility to know when assignments are due. Calendar those assignments.

You should notify me by email prior to the beginning of any class that you intend to miss. Your email should set forth the reasons for your anticipated absence. If your absence is excused – which is at my discretion – you will be permitted to make up any in-class writing that was given during the missed class. However, it is your responsibility to ask me for the assignment, and the assignment must be submitted no later than one class period after your return to class. If your absence is not excused, no make-up assignment will be accepted for credit. If you do not email me prior to the beginning of the class that you intend to miss, no make-up assignment will be accepted for credit. The email must be received by the professor prior to the beginning of class, as determined by the time/date stamp on the email when it is received in the professor’s email inbox. An exhaustive list of excused absences cannot be listed here, but they do NOT include missing class to fulfill obligations for other classes, work, travel related to a holiday, or personal interests. Participation points cannot be made up. Note that if participation credit is awarded on a day that you have an excused absence, you will still receive “0” for participation. As a special note, please recognize that we DO have class on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. We DO have class during the week prior to Spring Break. We DO have class on the last day of class. This is true, even if you have already purchased airline tickets. If you do not come to class those days or on any day because you are traveling or due to some other unexcused absence, you will not be permitted to make up the work. Additionally, you will not be permitted to do the work in advance.

Do not come to class ill. You will be sent home if you come to class ill.

Do not ask for any of the policies to be waived.

Emails

Treat an email from your professor as you would an email from an employer. Do not ignore it. Do not lose it. If you have a technological problem, contact technical support and correct it. Technological problems are not a valid excuse for not reading and responding to emails from your professor.

Moodle

You are responsible for checking our Moodle site regularly for class related materials.

Office Hour Policies

Do not come to office hours to hang out. When you visit your professor in office hours, make sure to have well-formulated, prepared questions that you have already attempted to answer on your own. Your professor is not your study partner. If you would like to have a study partner, please acquire one among your classmates. When you visit during office hours, we will not systematically go through in-class worksheets or other study questions. Part of learning law is gaining confidence in your ability to identify relevant issues, knowing the relevant rule of law, applying the rule of law to the facts, and reaching a supportable conclusion. Gaining confidence requires independent practice.

Do not sign up for more than one slot of office hours at a time. If you need additional time, then we will schedule more office hours periodically in the future, after we have assessed the challenges that you are facing with the class material. However, no one is permitted to sign up for a block of office hours, because that deprives other students – including “drop in” appointments – from being able to use office hours.

Legal advice is never given or offered. Do not ask for any legal advice. If you need the services of an attorney, please hire one.

Do not ask to use your professor’s computer or telephone.

Professor Johnson’s office is a cell phone free office. Please turn off your phone before entering. Do not consult your telephone for telephone messages or text messages or for any other purposes when visiting your professor.

Do not come to office hours if you ill.

Do not ask for your Professor to read your assignments and give feedback before they are due. If you need assistance with proofreading, organization, or making clear your writing, please visit the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching. Assignments will not be previewed before they are graded. If you have specific questions related to law, please ask those questions, and then incorporate your understanding of law into your paper.

Please note that Professor Johnson is not a personal counselor. If you are experiencing personal problems, please make use of the resources on campus to help you with those issues. Please do not ask Professor Johnson to become involved in disagreements with other students, your coach, other professors, your parents, or any other personal challenges that you may be facing. While Professor Johnson has great empathy for all persons affected by life’s challenges, she is neither qualified nor authorized to intervene in circumstances of a personal nature.

Emergency Statement Response Guidance

Please review university emergency preparedness and response procedures posted at www.pugetsound.edu/emergency/. There is a link on the university home page. Familiarize yourself with hall exit doors and the designated gathering area for your class and laboratory buildings.

If building evacuation becomes necessary (e.g. earthquake), meet your instructor at the designated gathering area so she/he can account for your presence. Then wait for further instructions. Do not return to the building or classroom until advised by a university emergency response representative.

If confronted by an act of violence, be prepared to make quick decisions to protect your safety. Flee the area by running away from the source of danger if you can safely do so. If this is not possible, shelter in place by securing classroom or lab doors and windows, closing blinds, and turning off room lights. Lie on the floor out of sight and away from windows and doors. Place cell phones or pagers on vibrate so that you can receive messages quietly. Wait for further instructions.

Student Bereavement Policy

Upon approval from the Dean of Students Office, students who experience a death in the family, including parent, grandparent, sibling, or persons living in the same household, are allowed three consecutive weekdays of excused absences, as negotiated with the Dean of Students Office. For more information, please see the Academic Handbook.

Office of Accessibility and Accommodations

If you have a physical, psychological, medical or learning disability that may impact your course work, please contact Peggy Perno, Director of the Office of Accessibility and Accommodations, 105 Howarth, 253.879.3395. She will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All information and documentation is confidential.

Grade Components

Exams are based upon class exercises and discussions, and assigned readings. The first three exams will focus on the new material covered since the prior exam. However, note that the study of law builds upon foundational blocks, and so students must be familiar with all material covered during the semester for each exam and must be able to apply that material appropriately. This means that all exams are comprehensive. The fourth exam is a comprehensive final exam, and it will be given during finals week.

Law labs require individual and partner work, and they may require written and oral presentation. Those assignments will be explained in class.

Participation is required in this course. Please be expected to volunteer and to be volunteered (i.e., called upon) to answer questions concerning the day’s readings, prior readings, application of material that we have been studying, or to lead the class discussion. Attendance will count towards participation credit. Any announced or unannounced in-class exercise(s) will count towards participation.

Written assignment is a 3 – 5 page paper, excluding title page and reference pages. You will use this assignment to demonstrate your knowledge of ethics and a particular area of law as it applies to the business environment. You may choose to write your paper with a focus on any one of the following substantive areas of law: contracts, bankruptcy, torts, property law, employment law, or intellectual property law. Your paper must be in APA format. If you do not know what that means, you should visit the CWLT for assistance. The paper will a) identify a current event (within the last five years) in business related to your choice of law topic and b) use the rules of law (minimum of five rules required) in the substantive area that you have chosen to analyze the current event to c) propose a recommendation to limit liability exposure for the business and d) reflect ethical decision-making based upon an identified standard of ethics. Last, e) your paper will contain a minimum of 10 different outside sources as references (excluding your textbooks) that are appropriate for an academic research paper. That means that you should begin your research as soon as possible, because your paper must include 10 different outside sources that are appropriate for an academic paper. Your grade for the written assignment will be based on the following components: