Ethics and The Law

So why do we have to study the general concepts of law? What does that have to do with Computer Ethics?

Here's what I think.

The concepts of law in general, gives us an idea of the laws that govern our way of life. Divine Law tells us of our responsibilities to our religious and spiritual selves. Natural Law says that our actions must be for the common good so we have to exercise righteousness, justice, equity, and fairness. Moral Law gives us a list of the things that we can and cannot do in a particular community. And the Law of Nature tells us of the physical laws that dictate how nature behaves as such and how we should naturally react with respect to this behavior. These are four of the concepts of law that form the pillar for today's written laws. And we study these basic concepts to know (in a broad sense) which laws from among a particular rigid set of laws we have to follow considering these four basic concepts.

Now with regards to computer ethics, we study these concepts so we could apply them to one particular set of laws for computing (computing is here defined as anything that involves the use of the computer). These concepts serve as the foundation upon which principles in computer ethics are built.