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EAS 536.001 - Legal Knowledge for Values-Driven Leaders

Description

To successfully navigate an increasingly chaotic and complex business world business leaders need strong legal and ethical foundations.  This course provides the legal and business ethics frameworks that are essential for responsible decision making.  Students will identify and explore their personal values and practice how to put them into action through implementing key legal and ethical strategies. Using a framework describing managers' economic, legal, and ethical responsibilities, this course draws upon theory as well as contemporary business ethics and legal dilemmas. The course also presents the various perspectives on the appropriate role of business in society alongside the actual legal obligations that companies have - and do not have - to a range of crucial stakeholders. 
Through a discussion of challenges facing executives, employees, and organizations, the course examines topics such as corporate social responsibility, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), the role of business in shaping public policy, corruption, cross-national business ethics, confronting crisis, and the future of work and a just transition with artificial intelligence and automation.  The course readings, lectures, and guest speakers are designed to foster vibrant and thought-provoking discussions that provide students with the tools and analytical skills to first spot and avoid ethical and legal risk, and then to use their ethical reasoning and analysis skills to be responsible and effective leaders throughout their careers.

Course Term
Winter 2026
Credit Hours
2.25
Specializations
Sustainable Systems
For more course details, log in using your U-M credentials.
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University of Michigan
School for Environment and Sustainability
Dana Building
440 Church Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
(734) 764-6453
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