Law in Business and Society
LAW/421
September 19, 2011

Law in Business and Society
The role of law in business and society
The successful operation of business and society is due to the role that law plays. In order for society to run smoothly, laws are needed to regulate social behavior. Ethical standards and expectations are also supplied by laws, while offering rules of demeanor, methods to implement those rules, and processes for settling debates. While the overall functions of law seem to be rather straightforward, the United States legal system is really very complicated. At a broad level, the major function of law is to uphold steadiness in the public, civil and economic structure while at the same time allowing change. The law achieves this essential function by presenting a number of precise functions, including dispute resolution, defense of property, and conservation of the state (Bushman, 2007).
Functions of law also provide are: negotiation; checking government power and encouraging personal freedom; assisting planning and the grasp of rational expectations; boosting economic growth via free competition; promoting social integrity; and protecting the environment. Most people will agree that without laws to govern the exploits of people and businesses, society would not be capable of functioning effectively, and business would likely shut down (Bushman, 2007). In the United States, the legal system acknowledges the significance of law in day to day personal and business life. Rules, implementation of these rules, and consequences for breaking them, are needed in order to guarantee a just, well-ordered, and successful society. The same can be said for making a good, organized, and successful work environment. Without law, chaos would certainly follow (Curtis, 2009).
Disagreements, which unavoidably occur in a society as intricate and reliant as ours, may include criminal issues, such as burglary, or noncriminal affairs, such as car accidents. Since disagreements jeopardize the strength of society, the law has recognized a complex and changing set of rules to solve them. In addition, the legal system has founded general solutions, usually oversaw by the courts, in place of private solutions like retaliation. It is a main function of the legal system is to assure that laws are enforced. Penalties are the ways by which the law applies the decisions of the courts. Without punishments, laws would be useless and unenforceable. While moral and ethical notions significantly influence the law, morals and law are not the same (Curtis, 2009).
Law in my professional life The last company I worked for was a small town Land Surveyor. Many of times we had customers some to us with concerns of their property boundaries. They would want us to tell them if their neighbor’s fence was encroaching, or if they had enough room to add the pool they wanted. As a land surveyor, your job is to not tell anyone what they own, but to state what their deed says they own. We would also have to note on the survey whether or not the legal description we were given was with or without the benefit of an abstract. This would confuse some customers, but we could go and survey anyone’s property, so if they brought us a deed that they said was the property their grandmother owned, we could survey it. If the customer did not have an abstract to assure them they did own the property full and clear, there was the possibility that grandma could have split off a few acres years ago and sold it and did not have the up to date deed. Another issue we ran into was people who bought their property outright, and never got a survey when they first bought it. They would come in years later and claim that their neighbor has been driving across their land to get to his property which sat behind theirs. Legally, if the neighbor had used the cut across for more than seven years, they could to in front of a judge and get adverse possession, meaning that since they had used the property for over seven years, the true owner of the land could not stop them from using the land. This would make a lot of people mad, but we would tell them if they saw the neighbor using the land from the beginning, then they should have stopped it then. There was nothing we could do but suggest they get a lawyer to fight their claim, and may the best lawyer win. Bibliography
Bushman, M. (2007, Feb. 10). Associated Content. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/139783/the_role_and_functions_of_law_in_business.html?cat=3
Curtis, A. (2009, June 18). Function and Role of Law in Business and Society. Retrieved September 15, 2011, from Associated Content: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1799066/functions_and_role_of_law_in_business.html?cat=17