Oliver Wendell Holmes states that justice is subjective and changes according to the viewer's prejudice, viewpoint or social affiliation. But a set of rules is needed to make society function and these rules must be carried out. This philosophy of law applies to Ann Hopkins' case. The senior partner and admissions committee had the prerogative of setting out the rules with which partners should be selected. Their sense of justice was personal and subjective. A charge of sex discrimination could not be entered against them. They comprised the selection board, which could decide on the rules or laws of selection of partners. And when a consensus was reached among them, a law was also formed, according to St. Thomas Aquinas' philosophy about the law necessarily being the product of consensus.

Case # 3 Ashland Oil, Inc.: Trouble at Floreffe

Ashland Oil, Inc. was the 60th largest company in the U.S. And the U.S.' largest independent oil refiner, which employed more than 42,000 people worldwide and had a refining capacity of 346,000 barrels of oil daily (Delehunt 1990). It produced a range of petroleum products sold to resellers and consumers in the East, South and Upper Midwest and ran SuperAmerica, a chain of more than 450 combined gasoline and convenience stores. But as it rapidly grew and diversified, it also tarnished its public image. It was reprimanded and fined by the Securities and Exchange Commission for illegal political contributions and for rigging construction bids in the Southeast. It also made questionable payments to Middle Eastern middlemen and the Belzberg family that took over it was later on charged with violations to federal disclosure laws. Most importantly, the company's 4-million-gallon storage tank at the Floreffe terminal outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania collapsed while being filled on January 2, 1988 and released a 3.9-million-gallon spill into the surrounding properties. In the evening, close to 3 quarters of a million gallons of oil had spilled into the Monongahela River and threatened the water supply of communities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The chairman of the board of the Company knew he had a major environmental problem before him. When the newspaper began...

The spill also deprived 15,000 residents of Pittsburgh of water supply so that water rationing had to be done by the authorities. Ashland officials and their lawyers were ferreting out their responses to the press in the hope of preventing legal consequences.
Ashland may have economically benefited the country with its products and its employees with jobs, but Ashland's public records and the far-reaching effects of this oil spill on the communities and the environment due to neglect could negate the gains. The company violated many public laws while benefiting the country. William Lloyd Garrison's and Oliver Wendell Holmes' philosophies apply: "that which is not just is not law" and "the law must be carried out for society to function." The company's public violations for illegal political contributions, for rigging construction bids, for operating the tank without a permit and using reconstructed tanks from used steel. The law must be carried out against the violations of Ashland. Filtering and refining responses to the press on its awful responsibility over the disastrous oil spill of January 2, 1988 in avoiding the legal consequences of its neglect outrage all sense of justice and violate all laws meant to protect human life and the environment.

Bibliography

Barkan, Ilyse. Ann Hopkins. Case number 9-391-155. Harvard Business School. The President and Fellows of Harvard College: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1997

Delehunt, Anne K. Ashland Oil, Inc.: Trouble at Floreffe. Harvard Business School. The President and Fellows of Harvard College: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1990

Dictionary.com. (2005). Law. Lexico Publishing Group LLC. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=law

Justice. http://dictionary.reference.com/search-q-justice

Myers, Paul S. Paul Cronan and New England Telephone Company. Harvard Business School. The President and Fellows of Harvard College: Harvard Business School Publishing, 1991