3/1/98
Someone asked Frank Cross if law was an ethic.  Several years ago I wrote an
article for Business Horizons in which I developed the thesis that positive
law (law on the books) had become an ethical ceiling rather than the
traditional view that law is an ethical floor.  I also gave a paper on this
advancing reasons for the ascendency of law to the "higher status" of an
ethic at the ALSB annual meeting last August in Atlanta.
     Finally, in the spirit of shameless commercialism, the first chapter of
Fisher/Phillips' Fifth and Sixth Editions Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory
Environment of Business (West, 1998), also, to some extent, develops the
thesis that law has become an ethic.  It is a very dangerous idea, but in
our pluralistic and "nonjudgmental" world where no one seems willing to
stick his/her neck out and say what is "right", we all seem to be looking to
the sovereign for the "answer."  Given what transpires in Washington, D.C.
and a number of state capitals, this has a disturbing aspect to it.
     There is a bright side to the unorthodox thesis that law is an ethic:
As persons who teach law, we can legitimately say that we are ipso facto
teaching ethics!  A sound idea when confronting accreditation and curriculum
committees.
                             Lawfully yours,
                             Bruce D. Fisher