Law is a necessity in business and society. Law has been defined as “A body of rules of action or conduct prescribed by a controlling authority and having legal binding force” (Melvin, p. 4, 2011).
Laws are essentially common sense or ethical standards that are enforced. Without laws, society would depend on all to be ethically and morally sound, but even then, there would still need to be laws to protect those that need to be protected. What is good for a company may still infringe on an individual, a group, and/or environmental rights.
The law is vast, so if one were to break it down into three classifications, there would be; Criminal and Civil, Substantive and Procedural, and Public and Private. These are defined as: 1. Criminal and Civil Law – Criminal Law is for the protection of society. Any act committed by someone that puts their society in harm’s way is committing a criminal act and is punishable under Criminal Law with possible fines and imprisonment. Civil Law is the protection of private parties (including businesses) where a lawsuit can be brought towards another private party for proposed wrong doings.
The goal for a civil suit is to either stop someone from doing something or to get them to do something and can sometimes include monetary consequences (Schneider, 2013).
2. Substantive and Procedural Law – Substantive Law is a statutory law that provides rights between individuals or an individual and the state; the rights and duties of people. Procedural Law is the set of rules set forth for substantive rights. This tells the courts how to try and sentence each case, to ensure fair practice and consistency is maintained (Mabelle, n. d. ).
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Public and Private Law – Public Law is the relationship between individuals and the state; constitutional, administrative, and criminal. Private Law is the relationship between the legal system and individuals; like labor laws and contracts (Mabelle, n. d. ).
Military recruiting is involved in dealing with laws in a multitude of ways. Not only does a military recruiter have to abide by every law that any other person has to, but they are also held to military law; also known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and this applies to all branches.
Military recruiters also deal with criminal and civil law almost daily. When a new applicant attempts to join a branch of the military they must pass all requirements set forth by each branch: physically, mentally, and morally. If an applicant has any charges, on or off the record, they must divulge it to the recruiter during the interview process. It is the recruiter’s responsibility to locate all charges by going to court houses and police stations to document in the applicant’s record and get a hand written statement about each charge; even if a charge has been expunged.
Because of this the military recruiter must also know about laws, charges, and the meanings of law lingo to be successful. Applicants can say things that may not make sense to themselves or the normal everyday person that might be a very serious matter. If the recruiter misses it, because they are unaware, it could cause serious problems for the recruiter and applicant. Each job in the military has its own set of qualifications; some more than others.
So if a charge is missed and not documented properly then the applicant could get placed into a job, go through boot camp, go through job training, and check into their command before the back ground check is complete and if said charge disqualifies them for that particular job then this can make the applicant’s life very difficult. A recruiter being knowledgeable about the law, it’s terms and definitions, could prevent the applicant from being kicked out of the military and the recruiter from being charged under the UCMJ for fraudulent enlistment.
The law in business and society is there to protect everyone, even the military. To think the military would need protection sounds odd, but the fact is, from time of enlistment to the time they check into their first command the military could spend upwards of $1 million on each applicant. Enlisting fraudulently could be seen as stealing from the government and that is highly frowned upon; thus the reason for needing to follow the laws set in place to prevent such occurrences.