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.
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.
The legislative intent is that protection of the public shall be the highest priority of the Board for Professional Engineers in California.
Engineers are held to a specific legal standard for ethics and performance (see below), while a natural scientist or technician is not.
16–40 hours of update training per year are also generally required for a licensed engineer to continue to practice, to ensure they stay current with hard skills such as relevant codes, standards and technology.
Breaches of engineering law are often sufficient grounds for enforcement measures, which may include the suspension or loss of license and financial penalties.
They may also include imprisonment, should gross negligence be shown to have played a part in loss of human life.
Engineers may appeal the regulatory discipline committee's verdict in a divisional court depending on the jurisdiction.
The decision-making process must be clearly laid out between the licensed engineer and the subordinate non-licensed person carrying out the work.
It is generally agreed that an engineer's stamp or seal communicates to officials and to the public that the document's contents reflect professional knowledge and care; and that applicable statues, standards, codes and regulations have been followed.
Internal analysis or drawings within a corporation or a partnership need not be sealed or stamped, although they may be, at the engineer or organization's discretion.
The consequence of failure to seal a document is for the engineer to be put in front of the regulatory discipline panel.
Only a regulatory discipline panel can make a determination as to whether a document, analysis or drawing needed to be sealed.
Extreme caution must be applied in the outsourcing of engineering works as deaths have occurred due to carelessness.
The Washington Accord is an agreement that was put in place by a number of international signatories, recognizing their approaches and systems for accrediting university engineering programs as comparable.
Signatories to the Washington Accord are Australia, Canada, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong China, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
The safety culture of an organization of practitioners is often dictated by ethics clauses in engineering law.
Engineering must be conducted in an orderly and ethical manner where all appropriate codes and standards are carefully considered.
Orderly consideration is a vital part of any engineering work involving public safety or a contract.
Engineers must conduct themselves in a dignified manner[citation needed] and their work must reflect this dignity and a dedication to excellence.
Specifically, Ontario engineering law Regulation 941 demands fairness and loyalty to the practitioner’s associates, employer, clients, subordinates and employees; devotion to high ideals of personal honour and professional integrity; co-operation in working with other professionals engaged on a project; courtesy and good faith towards other practitioners; and no malicious attempts to injure the reputation or business of another practitioner.
The industrial exemption may allow some corporations to use unsupervised non-licensed persons to perform engineering activities on manufacturing equipment.
Lack of oversight or supervision has been associated with catastrophes such as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and the 2015 Gold King Mine waste water spill.