Business Law: The Ethical, Global, and Digital Environment

Throughout its 80 years of existence, Business Law: The Ethical, Global, and Digital Environment has been a leader and an innovator in the fields of business law and the legal environment of business. This textbook was the first to inject regulatory materials into a business law textbook, defining the legal environment approach to business law and over the years, has also been a pioneer, introducing materials on business ethics, corporate social responsibility, global legal issues, and e-commerce law. One reason for the book’s success is its clear and comprehensive treatment of the standard topics that form the traditional business law curriculum, providing all business majors with a firm understanding of law in the context of business. It engages students with cases that are current and relevant, but also maintains “landmark” cases, as well as cases from the past, that are superior to more current cases in teaching students a particular topic. The program also provides content topics that address accreditation standards set by the AACSB with a focus on ethical issues and global issues with Ethics in Action boxed features and chapters covering international topics like corporate inversions. The 18th edition will continue to be an innovator in business law preparing your students for the real world.

Jamie Darin Prenkert, Professor of Business Law and Arthur M. Weimer Faculty Fellow, joined the faculty of Indiana Universitys Kelley School of Business in 2002. He has served as chair of the Department of Business Law & Ethics since 2014. Professor Prenkert is a former Editor in Chief of the American Business Law Journal and member of the executive committee of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. His research focuses on issues of employment discrimination and the human rights obligations of transnational corporations. He has published articles in the American Business Law Journal, the North Carolina Law Review, the Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, among others. He also recently coedited a volume entitled Law, Business and Human Rights: Bridging the Gap. Professor Prenkert has taught undergraduate and graduate courses, both in-residence and online, focusing on the legal environment of business, employment law, law for entrepreneurs, and business and human rights. He is a recipient of the Harry C. Sauvain Undergraduate Teaching Award and the Kelley Innovative Teaching Award.
Professor Prenkert earned a B.A. (summa cum laude) from Anderson University and a J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the faculty of the Kelley School, he was a senior trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.


A. James Barnes is Professor of Public and Environmental Affairs and Professor of Law at Indiana University, Bloomington (IU). He previously served as Dean of IUs School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and has taught business law at Indiana University and Georgetown University. His teaching interests include commercial law, environmental law, alternative dispute resolution, law and public policy, and ethics and the public official. He is the co-author of several leading books on business law. From 1985 to 1988, Professor Barnes served as the deputy administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
From 1983 to 1985 he was the EPA general counsel and in the early 1970s served as chief of staff to the first administrator of EPA. Professor Barnes also served as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice and as general counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From 1975 to 1981, he had a commercial and environmental law practice with the firm of Beveridge and Diamond in Washington, D.C.
Professor Barnes is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and a fellow in the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He recently served as the chair of EPAs Environmental Finance Advisory Board, and as a member of the U.S. Department of Energys Environmental Management Advisory Board. From 1992 to 1998 he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Long Island Lighting Company (LILCO). Professor Barnes received his B.A. from Michigan State University and a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School.


Joshua E. Perry, Associate Professor of Business Law and Ethics and Glaubinger Chair for Undergraduate Leadership, joined the faculty of Indiana Universitys Kelley School of Business in 2009. He teaches a variety of courses on business ethics, critical thinking, and the legal environment of business to both undergraduates and MBA students in-residence and online. Since 2016 he has also served as Faculty Chair of the Undergraduate Program at Kelley. He earned a B.A. (summa cum laude) from Lipscomb University, a Masters of Theological Studies from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School, and a J.D. from the Vanderbilt University Law School. Prior to joining Kelley, he was on faculty at the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he taught medical ethics in the School of Medicine and professional responsibility in the Law School, while serving as a clinical ethicist in both the adult and children's hospitals at Vanderbilt. He also practiced law as a civil litigator in Nashville, Tennessee.
Professor Perrys award-winning scholarship explores legal, ethical, and public policy issues in the life science, medical device, and healthcare industries, as well as in the business of medicine. His numerous articles and essays have appeared in a variety of law reviews and peer-reviewed journals across the fields of business, medicine, law, and ethics, including the American Business Law Journal, the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change, the Syracuse Law Review, and the Journal of Legal Studies Education. An active member of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, he was recognized in 2013 with the Academys Distinguished Junior Faculty Award, celebrating outstanding early career achievement. In 2015 he was invited to join the editorial board for the Journal of Business Ethics as the Business Law Section Editor. He is also a recipient of numerous teaching awards at Kelley for excellence and innovation in the classroom, and in 2015 he was elected into Indiana Universitys Faculty Colloquium for Excellence in Teaching.