What Does Law Have to Do With It? The Jury's Role in Cases Alleging Violations of Law, Custom and Standards

Rules telling people how to act come from many sources. Statutory law governs a wide range of conduct—driving an auto-mobile, operating a business, building a home. Non-governmental standards reach just as far. Individuals run their businesses in accordance with the law, but also by observing professional standards and industry customs.

A hotel owner might look to state or local law to determine how to fence the hotel pool or whether to have a lifeguard on duty. The owner might also decide what to do by looking to industry customs or non-govern-mental safety guidelines, such as those a private body has issued.2 A failure to comply with any type of safety standard can result in tragedy—a child might drown in a hotel’s unfenced or unguarded pool. And, in any case, the child’s parents are likely to argue that the hotel was negligent in failing to follow the governing standards.