Part 2: Fiduciary Duties to Shareholders, Partners, and Members

In Part 1, we examined the relationship between law and ethics generally. In this Part, we set up a primary category of legal duties of the course: the responsibility to create profit for business owners, partners, or members. To understand these duties, it is necessary to understand how businesses are legally structured, so a good deal of this Part will review business organization law. In Part 3, we will consider ethical duties. Then, in the remainder of the course (Parts 4-7), we will consider the relationship and tension between these two contrasting sets of principles.