Professional licensing boards: A comparison of registration acts, code of ethics, and disciplinary actions

The professional registration boards for engineering are created and operate under the laws of their respective jurisdictions. They are given the power to regulate the profession by establishing minimum criteria, to review candidates for registration, to address and resolve complaints against registered and unregistered persons who may have violated the statutes governing the profession. The power of these boards, in the United States, is vested in them through the police power of their respective states' constitutions. Addressing ethical issues impacting the profession is a central theme which runs throughout the required capstone course Professional Aspects of Land Surveying offered at Penn State University. In addressing these issues students, for first three weeks of the semester are engaged in reading, interpreting statutes, and researching case law with respect to registration laws, code of ethics, and the disciplinary actions taken by the licensing boards of a number of jurisdictions. It is the intent of this article to present a compilation of the similarities and differences of the laws regulating registration and in light of the ethical issues arising from the practice of engineering the article will compare and contrast disciplinary actions taken by these boards pursuant to a filing of a formal complaint.