Law, Business, and Society

"Our primary goal is to provoke student thought. To that end, we place heavy emphasis on analysis. We consider the questions we ask more important than the answers to those questions. We introduce the student to existing policy in the various substantive areas to encourage understanding and retention, as well as careful thought about the desirability of those policies. Our book takes a strong public policy orientation. Attention in Unit I to political economy and ethics is a necessary foundation on which the student can build a logical understanding of the regulatory process. Thereafter, those business and society themes persist throughout the book. In virtually every chapter, we look beyond the law itself to other social and environmental forces. For example, in the antitrust chapters, economic philosophy is of great importance. Antitrust is explored as a matter of national social policy. We argue that antitrust has a good deal to do with the direction of American life generally. Law is at the heart of the fair employment practices section, but we also present material from management, sociology, history, and popular culture to treat fair employment as an issue of public policy rather than as a series of narrower technical legal disputes. The law is studied in the economic, social, and political context from which it springs. These multidimensional approaches characterize most chapters as we attempt to examine the various topics as a whole and in context. At the same time, the law remains the core of the book. Broadly, our adjustments for this twelfth edition were designed to refresh the book and achieve increased reader interest, but more specifically this edition is directed to the nation's ongoing debate about how much government we need in our lives, particularly in our business lives. International issues also receive extensive attention, as well as critics of business values and the American legal system. Although the general structure and philosophy of the book are unchanged, we have made significant revisions including many new questions and several new law cases. Law cases are long enough to clearly express the essence of the decision while challenging the reader's intellect"--