the.com/code of ethics

means A written set of principles an organization adopts to say out loud what it will and won't do, for reasons that are sometimes moral and sometimes legal insurance.

from 'Code' traces back to Latin codex, a block of wood split into wax-covered writing tablets, later any bound book of laws — think Roman legal codices. 'Ethics' comes from Greek ethikos, relating to ethos, meaning 'character' or 'custom,' the habits a community settles into. Put together, 'code of ethics' is a fairly modern pairing: an old word for 'the rules written down' fused to an old word for 'character,' arriving at its familiar corporate-document sense mostly in the 20th century, as professions and businesses began formalizing conduct in writing rather than leaving it to custom alone.