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What is the Difference Between Legal & Ethical Standards?

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After reviewing this lesson, you’ll learn that what is legal is not always ethical. Learn about these two standards and how they differ from one another.
Legal Standards
Legal standards are standards that are set forth in governmental laws. All the statutes and laws that lawyers point to are legal standards. If you drive around downtown through any big city, you’ll notice parking signs all over the place telling you that you can’t park there for a long time, and they cite a city statute or code. This demonstrates a legal standard.

Legal standards are useful, as they help people to know what they cannot do. With legal standards in place, authorities are allowed to enforce rules when people do something illegal. For example, if someone steals, the legal standard saying ‘you cannot steal’ is used to discipline that individual, perhaps by placing him in prison.

Ethical Standards
Ethical standards, on the other hand, don’t necessarily have a legal basis. They are based on human principles of right and wrong. For example, when you are trying to park your car in a parking lot and there is only one parking spot left, the only legal standard you have to follow is that of not going over the speed limit or crashing into another car. Now, if you see another car about to go into that spot, though, ethical standards tell you not to fight for the spot but to give the spot to the car that was there first. It’s the right thing to do. That’s an ethical standard. Imagine if you were the one about to go into the spot, and someone quickly drove by and parked in that one spot. You would feel wronged, and yes, you were wronged, ethically speaking.

Differences
This leads us to the biggest difference between legal and ethical standards. Ethical standards are based on human rights and wrongs, while legal standards are based strictly on what is written in law. It is very possible that an action may be legal but not ethical. As in the example of the lone parking spot, the two cars are both obeying legal standards, but the one taking away the spot from the other driver who was there first is disobeying an ethical standard.

 
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