One school of thought is that law and ethics govern two different realms. The other school of thought is that the law embodies the ethics of business. Which do you agree with most and why. In-depth explanation.

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Business activity takes place within an extensive framework of law, and some people hold that law is the only set of rules that applies to business activity. Law, not ethics, these people believe, is the only relevant guide. The reasons that lead people to hold this view are varied, but two predominate.20 TWO SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT One school of thought is that law and ethics govern two diferent realms. Law prevails in public life, whereas ethics is a private matter. The law is a clearly defined set of enforceable rules that applies to everyone, whereas ethics is a matter of personal opinion that reflects how we choose to lead our own lives. Consequently, it would be a mistake to apply ethical rules in business, just as it would be a mistake to apply the rules of poker to tennis. A variant of this position is that the law represents a minimal level of expected conduct that everyone should observe. Ethics, on the other hand, is a higher, optional level. It is "nice" to be ethical, but our conduct has to be legal. Both versions of this school of thought are mistaken. Although ethics does guide us in our private lives, it is also applicable to matters in the public realm. We can identify business practices as ethical or unethical, for example, when we say that discrimination or consumer fraud is wrong. Moral judgments are also made about economic systems. Thus, most people believe that capitalism is morally justified, although it has many critics who raise moral objections. The other school of thought is that the law embodies the ethics of business. There are ethical rules that apply to business, according to this position, and they have been enacted by legislators into laws, which are enforceable by judges in a court. As a form of social control, law has many advantages over ethics. Law provides more precise and detailed rules than ethics, and the courts not only enforce these rules with state power but also are available to interpret them when the wording is unclear. A common set of rules known to all also provides a level playing field. Imagine the chaos if competing teams each decided for themselves what the rules of a game ought to be. For these reasons, some people hold that it is morally sufficient in business merely to observe the law. Their motto is, "If it's legal, then it's morally okay."21 In countries with well-developed legal systems, the law is a relatively complete guide for business conduct. In the United States, much of what is unethical is also illegal. However, many other countries of the world have undeveloped legal systems so ethics, not law, provides the main source of guidance. The relative lack of international law leaves ethics as an important guide for global business. Moreover, no legal system can embrace the whole of morality. Ethics is needed not only to address situations not covered by the law but also to guide the creation of new law. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, for example, was passed by Congress in response to the recognition that discrimination, which was legally practiced at the time, is morally wrong.