Grand Canyon Skywalk: Views of Law and Ethics

• Author: Debra D. Burke,Lorrie Willey
• Published date: 01 January 2015
• Date: 01 January 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jlse.12025

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 32, Issue 1, 173–221, Winter 2015

Grand Canyon Skywalk: Views of Law

and Ethics

Lorrie Willey∗and Debra D. Burke∗∗

I. Introduction

The intersection of law and ethics provides students with a view of how peo-

ple are expected to conduct themselves legally and how that conduct also

should meet ethical standards,1although legal and ethical behavior may or

may not be synonymous.2The story of the development and operation of

the Grand Canyon Skywalk is a tale of dreams, schemes, and the legal sys-

tem, but, most importantly, it is a tale of how people behave and how that

behavior raises questions of ethics regardless of the legal outcomes. This

teaching case provides students an opportunity to engage in active learn-

ing, to interact with their classmates, to learn the importance of gathering

information before making decisions, as well as the chance to look at the

story of the Skywalk from different perspectives and appreciate the impor-

tant role that perspective plays in determining the ethical nature of conduct.

Questions about sovereign immunity, eminent domain, trespass, easements,

arbitration, defamation, trademark, and contracts—the story of the Skywalk

has it all.

∗Assistant Professor, Western Carolina University

∗∗Professor, Western Carolina University

1See generally Susan L. Willey et al., Integrating Ethics Across the Curriculum: A Pilot Study to Assess

Students’ Ethical Reasoning,29J. Leg. Stud. Educ. 263 (2012) (examining the ability of graduate

and undergraduate students to identify and assess ethical and legal issues).

2See Lucien J. Dhooge, Creating a Course in Global Business Ethics: A Modest Proposal,28J. Leg.

Stud. Educ. 207, 211–12 (2011) (noting that legal compliance does not necessarily constitute

ethical compliance).

C2015The Authors

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2015Academy of Legal Studies in Business

173

174 Vol. 32 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

II. The Case Study

A. Skywalk

Officially opened in March 2007, amid festivities, tribal prayers, and sage

burning,3the Grand Canyon Skywalk, a two million pound engineering mar-

vel, is perched on a point at the far western edge of the Grand Canyon (the

Canyon).4Situated 120 miles from Las Vegas, the glass-bottomed Skywalk juts

seventy feet from the West Rim of the Canyon on the lands of the Hualapai

(WALL-uh-pie) Tribe (the Tribe), providing a bird’s-eye view of the Canyon

and the Colorado River rushing through the gorge four thousand feet below.

The Skywalk is not without some spiritual conflict, however. Some observers

believe that the Skywalk “desecrates the very place the Hualapai hold so dear”

and serves to “tarnish the pristine canyon.”5

Hundreds of thousands of daring visitors each year walk the sky on the

glass cantilevered horseshoe. Steel anchors sunk deep into the canyon cliffs

hold the structure in place.6Begun in 2005, the massive structure, with its

five-foot tall glass panels,7is able to withstand an 8.0 earthquake.8This glass

viewing deck, weighing nine hundred pounds, grew in a remote location

of “snakes, rocks, dirt and wind.”9While dry desert air blows across the

canyon, the two-inch thick, ten-feet wide Skywalk remains steady and can

3Sylvia Moreno, Tribe’s Canyon Skywalk May Bring Riches but Also Deepens Divide,

Wash. Post (Mar. 8, 2007), http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/

2007/03/07/AR2007030702557.html.

4Hualapai Tribe and the Skywalk, Grand Canyon National Park Arizona, Nat’l Park Serv.,

Dep’t of the Interior, http://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/skywalk.htm (last visited May

6, 2014).

5Moreno, supra note 3.

6Grand Canyon Observation Deck Reaches Dizzying Heights,Daily Mail Online (Mar.

21 2007), http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-443560/Grand-Canyon-observation-deck-

reaches-dizzying-heights.html.

7Skywalk at the Grand Canyon,Lochas Eng’g, http://www.lochsa.com/skywalk-grand-canyon-0

(last visited May 6, 2014).

8Impossible Places—The Skywalk a Step Too Far?, Royal Geog. Soc., http://www.rgs.org/

OurWork/Schools/Teaching+resources/Key+Stage+3+resources/Impossible+places/The+

Skywalk+a+step+too+far.htm (last visited May 6, 2014).

9A Canyon with a View, This View Made Possible with Lincoln Electric,Madepossiblewith,

http://madepossiblewith.com/campaigns/grandcanyon/grand-canyon-skywalk.php (last vis-

ited May 6, 2014) [hereinafter This View Made Possible].

2015 / Grand Canyon Skywalk: Views of Law and Ethics 175

weather winds up to one hundred miles per hour.10 Groups of 120 visitors

at a time, all in shoe coverings to protect the glass, traverse the attraction.11

An estimated 370,000 visitors annually,12 and pay the current ticket price of

$80.94 per person, which includes an impact fee and a fuel surcharge.13 A

2013 financial report indicated that revenues generated by this attraction

doubled from $7.9 million its first year of operation to $18.2 million in

2012.14 As a visitor to the Skywalk remarked, “It’s breathtaking really, it’s

unbelievable.”15

B. The Deal and the Divide

Las Vegas businessman David Jin approached the Hualapai Tribe with the

idea for the Skywalk in 1996.16 Jin already had a thriving Las Vegas tourist

business that catered to Chinese tourists. He transported visitors from Las

Vegas to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon on the Hualapai reservation.17

The West Rim of the Grand Canyon had difficulty competing with its more

famous cousin, the South Rim. To increase marketability, Jin proposed the

10Grand Canyon Skywalk Uses SentryGlas Rfor Strength, Safety Glass,DuPont,

http://www2.dupont.com/SafetyGlass/en_US/whats_new/grand_canyon_skywalk.html (last

visited May 6, 2014).

11Travel 365: Grand Canyon Skywalk, Arizona,Nat’l Geog., http://travel.national-

geographic.com/travel/365-photos/skywalk-grand-canyon-arizona/ (last visited May 6,

2014).

12Dennis Wagner, Grand Canyon Skywalk Judgment Could Devastate Tribe,USA Today(Feb. 19, 2014),

available at http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/19/grand-canyon-skywalk-

judgment-tribe/.

13Hualapai Tourism, Grand Canyon Skywalk at Grand Canyon West Voted the “Best New Bridge” by

Travel & Leisure Magazine, http://www.hualapaitourism.com/the-grand-canyon-skywalk/ (last

visited May 6, 2014).

14Tim O’Reiley, Legal Battle Surrounding Grand Canyon Skywalk Still Flares,Las Vegas Rev.-J.(Jan.

2, 2014), available at http://www.reviewjournal.com/business/legal-battle-surrounding-grand-

canyon-skywalk-still-flares.

15Jude Joffe-Block, Management of Grand Canyon Skywalk on Shaky Ground,Fronteras (Apr.

22, 2011), available at http://m.fronterasdesk.org/content/management-grand-canyon-skywalk-

shaky-ground.

16Id.

17Richard N. Velotta, Developer of Grand Canyon Skywalk Dies of Cancer,Vegas Inc.(June

14, 2013), available at http://www.vegasinc.com/business/real-estate/2013/jun/14/developer-

grand-canyon-skywalk-dies-cancer.