ENSC 100W - Laws and Ethics

Professions have a significant impact on...

The public

What do professions require?

- Require professional judgement (specialized skill/knowledge)

-Require formal education (extensive training)

- Allowed to self-regulate (professional association)

- Has a beneficial effect on public (confidence and public)

What are the responsibilities/relationships engineers have?

- Responsibility to the public, clients, yourself, colleagues, subordinates, employees, employer

Simple Ethical Problems

Good vs Bad

Hard Ethical Problems

- Good vs Good
- Bad vs Bad

eg. Doing work for client and receiving money in return

What government are professions regulated under?

Provincial goverment

Under the provincial government, what do engineers have access to?

- Engineers granted exclusive rights of practice and title under the Engineers and Geoscientists Act

What does the EGBC do for engineers?

- Required under Act to establish, maintain and enforce standards

- The term 'engineer' is protected

- Professional engineer registrants can only be called engineer

What do professional engineers must do?

- Members must self-regulate profession in the public interest

When was the Iron Ring established in Canada?

1922

What is the Iron Ring?

- The Calling of the Engineer
- Tradition for new graduates

What is the motivation behind the Iron Ring?

- Quebec Bridge Collapse

- 33 workers died during the 1907 collapse

- 13 died in the 1916 collapse

What is the key ideas of EGBC Code of Ethics?

- Act in fairness, courtesy and in good faith

- Be truthful, honest and trustworthy

- Above all else, safeguard human life and the environment

Most important EGBC Code of Ethics

- Act in the public interest

What is tenet 1?

Public Interest
- hold safety, health, welfare of the public, including the protect of the environment

What is tenet 2?

Know your limits
- Undertake and accept responsibility for professional assignments only when qualified by training or experience

What is tenet 3?

Follow the law
- Have regard for the common law and any applicable enactments

What standard is the law?

Engineers do more.
- They go above those standards and try to do things above the law

Do employers/clients expect you to just follow the law?

No, they expect you to follow the law and end up doing more.

What is tenet 4?

Follow standards of government or EGBC
- Have regard for standard and policies established by EGBC

What is tenet 5?

Maintain your competence
- Maintain knowledge in relevant specializations

What is tenet 6?

Provide accurate information in respect of qualifications and experience
- Maintain knowledge and strive to go above and beyond w/ that knowledge providing opportunities for the professional development of their associates

What is tenet 7?

Distinguish facts from assumptions from opinions
- Provide professional opinions that distinguish between facts, assumptions and opinions

What is tenet 8?

No conflicts of interest
- Avoid situations where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest
- No bias decisions
- Properly disclosed and necessary measures are taken

What is tenet 9?

Duty to report (may require some nuance)
-Report to EGBC if..
- risk of significant harm to the environment or to health or safety of the public
- illegal or unethical

What is tenet 10?

Stand your ground
- Communicate risks/consequences to the same level as the audience

What is tenet 11?

Each professional is responsible
- Identify each Registrant who has contributed professional work such as recommendations, reports, statements, etc

What is tenet 12?

Work diligently and follow standards of documentation
- Undertake work and document with due diligence

What is tenet 13?

Do unto others
- Fairness, courtesy, good faith towards clients, colleagues and others

What is the BC legal system made up of?

Common Law: judge made law that develops through law

Statute Law: statutes are acts passed by legislature

- Judges interpret statutes
- Some statutes modify common law

What is Tort Law?

Wrongful act results in injury to one person by another

What are the 3 essential elements of negligence?

1) Defendant owed plaintiff a duty of care
2) Defendant breached duty through action or inaction below the standard of care (Based on what an average engineer would do)
3) Defendant's breach caused injury to plaintiff

What is willful ignorance?

- Person intentionally avoiding or keeping themselves unaware of facts

Types of Intellectual Property

1) Copyright - Expression of ideas

2) Trademarks - Brands

3) Patents - Inventions

4) Industrial Designs - Appearance

5) Trade Secrets - Information

What is copyright?

- protection of written material or ideas
- Lasts for Life of Author + 70 years (2022)
- Covers entire world
- Possible for independent creation

Types of copyright

1) Literary Works
- Written work: Books, forms, manuals, software

2) Dramatic Works: Plays, movies, mis-en-scene

3) Musical works: music, musical composition, compilations

4) Artistic Works: Drawings, paintings, maps, photos, charts, CAD, engineer drawings

What is Trademark?

- Distinguishes product/brand/service from other similar brands
- Protects both companies and consumers
- Can't be a name, a descriptive, or similar to other marks

What are Patents?

- Grants monopoly per country from 20 years from filing date
- Cannot patent math formula or scientific principle

What is the three criteria to file a patent?

1) NEW - never be invented before and made available to the public

2) NON-OBVIOUS - some inventive step or notion of creativity

3) USEFUL - actually can do something and nothing to do with social worth ( has to fxn)

What are trade secrets?

- Protects confidential info
- Potentially forever
- either explicitly stated in a contract or implied
- does not prevent independent creation
- once info is out can get injunctions and sue for damage
- once info is out, no point of trade secret