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>.