Engineering law

rdf:langString Engineering law

rdf:langString Engineering law is the study of how engineering ethics and legal frameworks are adopted to ensure public safety surrounding the practice of engineering. California law defines engineering as "the professional practice of rendering service or creative work requiring education, training and experience in engineering sciences and the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences in such professional or creative work as consultation, investigation, evaluation, planning or design of public or private utilities, structures, machines, processes, circuits, buildings, equipment or projects, and supervision of construction for the purpose of securing compliance with specifications and design for any such work." By comparison, New York and Ontario law uses life and health in their definitions. Ontario defines engineering as the "planning, designing, composing, evaluating, advising, reporting, directing or supervising that requires the application of engineering principles and concerns the safeguarding of life, health, property, economic interests, the public welfare or the environment, or the managing of any such act." California law makes public protection paramount. The legislative intent is that protection of the public shall be the highest priority of the Board for Professional Engineers. Engineering is a controlled activity in North America. The practice of engineering is largely separated from that of a natural scientist or a technician by engineering law and education. A semiconductor physicist and an electrical engineer practicing at a large company are mainly differentiated by the laws under which they practice and the licenses they carry, affecting the work they take legal responsibility for. The law varies from state to state but an engineer is likely to have to take legal responsibility for an engineering work. The immunity afforded to an unlicensed person (e.g. engineer in training, natural scientist or technician) whose work is reviewed and approved by a licensed professional engineer is absolute. Engineers are held to a specific legal standard for ethics and performance (see below), while a natural scientist or technician is not. Governments and the public trust engineers because their qualifications and experience are regulated by an engineering board and they are subject to disciplinary measures for professional misconduct or negligence, such as fines or suspension of license.