The U.S. legal system - Essay Example

Usually when a case is unlikely to end in a successful tribunal, in court, then the defendant is granted a plea bargain or the case might even be dismissed by a judge or the district attorney. For instance, out of the 167,209 grownups arrested for misdemeanor charges, in the New York State, in 2009, only 663 individuals were exonerated (roughly 0.4%). More than 100,000 individuals were charged, but a majority of them pleaded out to lower charges. Just about 35,923 individuals were charged of a felony despite their former arrest (Burnham, 2012).

A majority of the rest were released after the completion of some form of rehab program. The United States legal system prides itself of been one of the fairest legal systems in the world. However, cases have arisen, which tend to question whether the above statement is true or false. Also, when someone considers the above statistics, they can start asking themselves questions of why some many people found in the wrong are eventually set free. It is true that the United States has the highest crime level than any other county in the globe (Burnham, 2012).

The total number of United States citizens, who have passed through United States prisons, is higher than that total number of citizens that have been imprisoned in other countries of the world combined. Therefore, does the United States legal system promote good or bad ethics? This paper will look into this question, as well as discuss the role of judges in promoting good legal ethical practices. Question 1 The preface to the United States Constitution states that making sure domestic harmony is a goal of government, which is a fairly or ethically a neutral argument (Burnham, 2012).

On the other hand, Civil Rights laws promote an ethical and legal commitment. Frequently the courts and laws are needed to resolve tough ethical dilemmas in the society such as the controversial issues concerning abortion, segregation and affirmative action. Also, laws permit numerous actions, which will not tolerate ethical scrutiny (Burnham, 2012). What the law requires or permits, in other words, is not essentially what is ethically right. For example, United States laws allow disloyalty or infidelity towards friends, the breaking of promises, which do not utilize the importance of legal contracts and a wide number of deceptions.

Laws, at times, involve gross immoralities, for instance the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which urged citizens to bring back fugitive slaves to their masters, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott ruling, which, in 1857, affirmed that slaves were not U.S. citizens, but the nation’s property (Burnham, 2012). State, federal and local regulatory acts persuade the behavior of some professions. Business managers are faced with two kinds of ethical matters when conducting their everyday activities and the law holds them answerable for their dealings in these areas.

Micromanagement matters include employee rights, conflicts of interest, sexual harassment, fair performance appraisals, discrimination, proprietary information and offering or accepting gifts. Macromanagement matters consist of corporate social accountability, environmental ethics, product liability, comparable worth, downsizings and layoffs, workers rights to seclusion in the work setting, employee screening