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What is Neoethics ?  
 

The dictionary splits "ethics" into two:

• Ethics (used with a sing. verb) The study of the general nature of morals and of the specific moral choices to be made by a person; moral philosophy.
• Ethics (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession.  

Neoethics  results because of the merging of these two dictionary definitions.  Neoethics – a new word for the new world of legal and corporate ethics -  is the combination of legal rules and moral philosophy. The public and government now demand that the rules governing lawyers respond to the public perception of the moral choices lawyers and corporate officers should make.

These are new requirements for lawyers and corporate officers - to act in accordance with a public morality. The causes are many. The requirements are new. The penalties are both new and substantial.

Neoethics arise out of a new complex of social and cultural conditions.   To first survive and then go forward to prosper: lawyers and corporate officers must lead, not follow, these changes.

The results of this new complex of social and cultural conditions are:

• You must understand that you are working in a new combined legal/social/ethical framework.
• You must perceive ethics as a matrix of both legal requirements and also social goals, and
• In your work you must adopt new ethics rules, working practices, and routines that respond to this 21st century framework and perception.

We call this new paradigm NEOETHICS.

In the Neoethics articles by the editor, we  explore both traditional legal ethics and also Neoethics, as Neoethics evolves in the legislatures, the courts, and the public's perception.

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