Faculty of Engineering and Material Science

Legislation, Contracts and Engineering Ethics

Tarik A. Youssef Ph.D, P.Eng October 17th, 2013

Introduction / Overview

Introduction / Overview
Why study Law and Ethics? I am an Engineer;

not a Lawyer or a Humanitarian :( !#&?f*

Syllabus (Course Content)

Main Objectives of this Course

Law and Ethics Example-cases

Distribution of Marks & Exam

Introduction / Overview

Engineering: is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of people. Definition of Professionals: A group of individuals who are self-selected and self-disciplined; who hold themselves out to the public as possessing a special skill that is derived from training & education; who are prepared to exercise that skill for the interest of others.

Introduction / Overview

Regulations: are rules set up to implement or support the Professional Engineers Act; they concern topics such as qualifications for admission to the Association/Syndicate (e.g. The Egyptian Syndicate of Engineers www.eea.org.eg ) and professional conduct.

By-laws: are rules set up to administer the association/syndicate itself. They concern the methods for electing members to the Association Council, financial statements, committees etc.
The code of ethics: is a set of rules of personal conduct to guide individual engineers. Every engineer must be familiar with and endeavor to follow this very important document.

Professional Engineering bodies worldwide

Law & Ethics prerequisites

Acquiring the necessary information and passing the Law & Ethics Exam in most if not all North American and European countries is mandatory to obtain the Professional Engineering license for a particular state, province or country. An Engineering degree equivalence also requires years of experience and possibly technical tests
http://www.eea.org.eg

Syllabus (Course Content)

Law & Ethics Course

Part A: Law
Business organizations Tort liability Contracts and related contractual matters Tendering issues Discharge of contracts Breach of Contracts Arbitration The Engineers law-code in A.R.E

Part B: Ethics
Engineering regulations Professional practice Principles of Engineering Ethics Ethical problems related to professional employment Environmental ethics Computer ethics Disciplinary powers and procedures The Engineers code of ethics in A.R.E

Part A (Law)

Legal Systems Different countries adopt different legal systems: Common Law (British Empire, including the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Ghana, Cameroon, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Hong Kong, and Australia) Civil Law (Latin America, France, Quebec and Egypt) Islamic Law (Saudi Arabia) Ancestral Law (China)

Part A (Law)

Legal Systems (continued)

Common law: is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes. A "common law system" is a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law, on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, an idealized common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. When the dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, judges have the authority and duty to make law by creating precedent.

Part A (Law)

Legal Systems (continued) Civil law (or civilian law): is a legal system inspired by Roman law and whose primary feature is that laws are codified into collections, as compared to common law systems that gives great precedential weight to common law on the principle that it is unfair to treat similar facts differently on different occasions. It holds legislation as the primary source of law, and the court system is usually inquisitorial, unbound by precedent, and composed of specially trained judicial officers with a limited authority to interpret law.

Part B (Ethics)
Codes of Ethics

The code of ethics is adopted by an organization in an attempt to assist those in the organization called upon to make a decision (usually most, if not all) understand the difference between 'right' and 'wrong' and to apply this understanding to their decision.

The ethical code therefore generally implies documents at three levels: codes of business ethics, codes of conduct for employees and codes of professional practice.

Course Objectives (continued)

Introduce students (Potential Engineers) to the codes of law & ethics within Egypt as well as other countries

(e.g. North America, Uk and the EU).

Introduce Engineers to Bidding, Tendering and further issues related to Contracts. Make Engineers aware of their duties and liabilities towards the society; furthermore, the implications of illegal/fraudulent behavior on their career.

Course Objectives

The Law & Ethics exam in any country is necessary to

obtain an equivalence to your degree in that other part

of the world.

Introduce students (Potential Engineers) to the many

legal terms (in Arabic or English) that they may

encounter in contracts, legal documents etc.

Part A: Law (Case Study)

Part A: Law (Case Study) GFJ established its own construction company and decided to bid on a major infrastructure project for a Government agency. In its bid price of $2,750,000, GFJ made a mistake by failing to include an amount of $750,000. This mistake resulted in its bid being substantially lower than the second lowest bidder of $3,400,000. Within an hour, subsequent to opening of bids, GFJ requested to withdraw its bid, which had not yet been accepted, and asked for its bid deposit of $150,000 to be returned.

When the owner rejected GFJ request to withdraw its bid, GFJ refused to proceed with the work. The owner sued the GFJ for the bid deposit amount and the difference between the GFJs bid price and the second lowest bidders price.

Part B: Ethics (Case Study)

Part B: Ethics (Case Study)
You are a Professional Engineer employed by a mid-sized Engineering firm. You have become experienced in your field and have been sitting on a government technical committee for two years. The committees purpose is to review and recommend changes to some technical regulations on an on-going basis due to continuing technical advances in the field. You sit on this committee on a volunteer position and provide engineering advice to the committee. During one of your meetings a friend and committee member asks you to have a look at an addition being constructed on his/her house. Your friend is concerned about some of the construction practices of the contractor and, in particular, whether a main steel beam is safe. You agree to help and proceed to meet at your friends house to provide your advice. Are there any steps you should take before meeting your friend? Refer to the relevant sections of your Code of Practice.

Distribution of Marks and Final Exam

Midterm Exam 20%

Final Exam
Quizzes

60%
10%

Assignments and in-class assessment

10%

References

References

Lecture notes and Slides

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Thank-You slide

Thank You !