Maybe officials thought an ethical policy consisted of going on as before, but not telling politicians what they were doing.
And in February, the Church of England sold its shares in Vedanta, saying that to do otherwise would be inconsistent with its ethical investment policy.
The court case has been seen as an embarrassment to Mr Cook, who promised an "ethical foreign policy" when he took over in May 1997.
Rather than appease them and make grubby deals for the sake of oil and geopolitics, the argument goes, the only ethical foreign policy is to reject them and walk away.
The Government's "ethical foreign policy" is again under question.
But nobody, the government now says, thought to mention Sandline's activities, or the investigation, to a foreign secretary known throughout his department for having put control of arms sales at the centre of his newly ethical foreign policy.
He denied criticising the government - often under fire for failing to live up to its promised "ethical" foreign policy - saying that he was merely offering a "progress report" on how his inquiry had been followed up.
Christians are at the forefront of attempts to make American foreign policy more ethical.
Yugoslavia is a different sort of war, one much more in accord with New Labour's claim to be prosecuting a more ethical sort of foreign policy.
Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, said the Bush policy imposed proper ethical limits on science.
"Robin Cook has made the establishment of the International Criminal Court a cornerstone of his foreign policy with an ethical dimension, " he said.
The ethical principle at the heart of this policy is simple: Do No Harm.
What are the policy options, what are their ethical implications, and can there really be a middle ground?
Gonzales, in summary, told Waxman that Rove "either had passing, inconsequential contacts or participated in broad policy discussions, neither of which presents an ethical problem under applicable regulations, " but said he would be happy to discuss the matter further if his letter did not satisfy Waxman's concerns.
That uncertainty discount notwithstanding, it seems that Thaksin's economic policy itself is not fundamentally at stake in the country's political-ethical crossfire.
The company ethos ticks the policy boxes for liberal consumers: it stocks Fair Trade products, is recognized as an ethical employer by Etisphere, and holds Cup Summits each year to address recycling solutions.
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Not surprisingly, codes are often too broad to capture the ethical issues that actually confront companies, which range from handling their own staff to big global questions of policy on the environment, bribery and human rights.
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