law essay test 1
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Lisa Port
February 3, 2015
BUS 303, Sec 8am
Reading Response Essay
American legal scholar and educator Roscoe Pound once said, “Law must be stable and
yet it cannot stand still” (Cheeseman 5). This quote demonstrates the difficulty of the law to
adapt to the ever-changing and evolving norms of society, technology, and the growth and
expansion of commerce. Most laws are created in response to accidents, rather than out of
anticipation or prediction. One of the most important functions of law in today’s society is
flexibility, which will be validated below through several examples. Therefore, as the quote
suggests, law is required to be adaptable instead of being set in stone in order to appropriately fit
the current society.
An example relating to technology is that over the last three decades, digital devices such
as smartphones and computers have been deeply integrated into the lives of businesses and
families. Since most laws were written before the time of technology, it has caused for existing
laws to be applied to the digital age, as well as, forced for the creation of new laws (Cheeseman
17). A problem relating to computers that has caused a considerable amount of issues in recent
years is the uploading, sharing, and downloading of copyrighted material on the internet. One
federal statute that has been consistently amended and continues to govern the current copyright
law of the United States is the Copyright Act of 1976 (Cheeseman 128). The Copyright Act of
1976 made it clear that computer software is copyrightable being considered under “literary
works” (Green 89). However, it was not until 1997 that Congress enacted the Net Act, which
criminalizes certain copyright infringement that takes place over the internet (Cheeseman 131).
This demonstrated that there was a need to protect businesses’ software, and the government
responded efficiently through amending the law and even creating new laws.
Similarly, the same type of flexibility was shown when it came to Americans changing
their mindset. An example that reveals the changing norms of society can be produced by racial
segregation that was occurring in 1896 due to the U.S. Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson
(Cheeseman 5). This segregation that occurred was related to the association of African
Americans to slavery which created ignorance and racism, while some white Americans
welcomed African Americans. However, in 1954 the “separate but equal” doctrine was
overturned starting with Brown v. Board of Education. It was ruled that the doctrine had no place
due to the facilities being unequal, and African Americans were being denied the equal
protection of the Fourteenth Amendment (Cheeseman 6). This shows that the constitution can be
interpreted in many different ways; in one court case segregation was ruled moral and in another
court case, it was interpreted as being unmoral.
Lastly, the Foreign Commerce Clause was adopted in response to society’s expansion of
trade from regional to international. This clause allows the U.S. government to regulate
commerce with foreign nations (Cheeseman 66). Some of these laws that were able to be created
due to this clause included the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996, which was renamed in
2006 to the Iran Sanctions Act. The Iran Sanctions Act was based off of the deteriorated
relationships of the United States and Iran that were created when the United States intervened in
the Iran-Iraq War. As a result, trade and investments were restricted from contributing to the
enhancement of Iran’s ability to develop its petroleum resources, weapons, and aviation
capabilities ("Iran Sanctions,” 2015).
In conclusion, law is constantly changing and adapting in order to protect people,
businesses, and countries. I always found it remarkable how the legislative branch of the
government was able to adapt the laws to the changing society, while maintaining stability in
society. In any case, the Net Act, the Brown v. Board of Education case, and the Iran Sanctions
Act all demonstrated the flexibility of law based on what changes were occurring in society at
that time. For that reason, Roscoe Pound’s quote is quite a legitimate and accurate description of
laws that will be made for today’s society and future societies to exist.
Works Cited
Cheeseman, Henry R. Business Law: Legal Environment, Online Commerce, Business Ethics, and International Issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2013. Print.
Green, Lisa C. "Copyright Protection and Computer Programs: Identifying Creative Expression in a Computer Program’s Nonliteral Elements." Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal 3.1 (1992): 89-137. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.
"Iran Sanctions." U.S. Department of the Treasury,13 Jan. 2015. Web. 02 Feb. 2015. <http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/iran.aspx>.
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