Final version adopted in 2001

I. Broad Principles

Ethics is generally understood as the discipline or field of study dealing with moral duty or obligation. This typically gives rise to a set of governing principles or values which in turn are used to judge the appropriateness of particular conducts or behaviors. These principles are usually presented either as broad guiding principles of an idealistic or inspirational nature, or, alternatively, as a detailed and specific set of rules couched in legalistic or imperative terms to make them more enforceable. Professions that have been given the privilege and responsibility of self regulation, including the engineering profession, have tended to opt for the first alternative, espousing sets of underlying principles as codes of professional ethics which...