TABLE OF CONTENTS Throughout this book, you are reading about the professional, ethical, and legal responsibilities of engineers. In this chapter, we will focus upon the topic of laws, regulations, codes, and standards. You need to know how they arise and the distinctions among them. No matter what segment of engineering you have chosen to call your professional home, laws, regulations, codes, and standards will apply to you or, at the very least, to your employer.
One note of caution: Many engineers who work in industry may hold that these areas are not your concern, and in many cases that may be true. However, if an industrial employer (or any other employer, for that matter) sees profit as the paramount goal, and if conforming to the requirements of laws, regulations, codes, and standards is an impediment to profit, your management may be inclined to "wink the eye." We can only hope that, through the various professional coaching and mentoring guidelines presented in this book, you will at least consider the implications of ignoring legalities. Laws and regulations almost always have penalties for violation attached to them, and some codes and standards, when adopted by law, also carry such consequences.
Laws define the permissible conduct of people and organizations. Laws provide for penalties against those who fail to act within the prescribed rules of conduct. Laws are administered through a system of courts, collectively known as a legal system.
Within the overall body of law, there is a hierarchy. Our...
