Engineer Mobility Right Invoked for U.S. Agency Engineers
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/102#Engineer_Mobility_Right_Invoked_for_U.S._Agency_Engineers
Properties
Instance of
At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
Applied to
Resignation from federal agency and formation of joint venture with private consulting firm
Balancing with
Active-Employment Private Contract Negotiation Prohibition
Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition
Insider Advantage Unfair Use Prohibition in Engineering Procurement
Concrete expression
The Board affirmed the basic right of the U.S. Agency engineers to resign from their federal positions and enter private practice or accept other employment, recognizing this as an axiomatic freedom of American citizens and a formally recognized NSPE policy right
Confidence
0.95
Importance
high
Interpretation
In this context, the right of engineer mobility is treated as foundational and non-contestable — the ethical analysis does not challenge the departure itself but focuses exclusively on the manner in which the departure and subsequent competitive conduct were executed
Invoked by
U.S. Agency Engineers Group
Tension resolution
The mobility right is affirmed as a baseline, but the Board holds that its exercise must be consistent with the Canons of Ethics — the right to depart does not immunize the manner of departure or subsequent competitive conduct from ethical scrutiny
Source Evidence
Source text
There can be no question of the basic right of an American citizen to resign from one position and accept another or initiate a business of his own.
Text references
NSPE has formally recognized that right in Professional Policy No. 52 which says: 'It is the stated policy of the Society that an individual professional engineer has the right to seek and accept other employment in his field, provided the seeking and acceptance of such other employment is consistent with the Canons of Ethics as it pertains to relations with clients and employers.'
There can be no question of the basic right of an American citizen to resign from one position and accept another or initiate a business of his own.
TTL
@prefix case102: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/102#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case102:Engineer_Mobility_Right_Invoked_for_U.S._Agency_Engineers a proeth:At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Engineer Mobility Right Invoked for U.S. Agency Engineers" ;
proeth:appliedto "Resignation from federal agency and formation of joint venture with private consulting firm" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Active-Employment Private Contract Negotiation Prohibition",
"Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition",
"Insider Advantage Unfair Use Prohibition in Engineering Procurement" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The Board affirmed the basic right of the U.S. Agency engineers to resign from their federal positions and enter private practice or accept other employment, recognizing this as an axiomatic freedom of American citizens and a formally recognized NSPE policy right" ;
proeth:confidence "0.95" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "102" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T16:16:15.886386+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "102" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T16:16:15.886386+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "In this context, the right of engineer mobility is treated as foundational and non-contestable — the ethical analysis does not challenge the departure itself but focuses exclusively on the manner in which the departure and subsequent competitive conduct were executed" ;
proeth:invokedby "U.S. Agency Engineers Group" ;
proeth:principleclass "At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right" ;
proeth:sourcetext "There can be no question of the basic right of an American citizen to resign from one position and accept another or initiate a business of his own." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The mobility right is affirmed as a baseline, but the Board holds that its exercise must be consistent with the Canons of Ethics — the right to depart does not immunize the manner of departure or subsequent competitive conduct from ethical scrutiny" ;
proeth:textreferences "NSPE has formally recognized that right in Professional Policy No. 52 which says: 'It is the stated policy of the Society that an individual professional engineer has the right to seek and accept other employment in his field, provided the seeking and acceptance of such other employment is consistent with the Canons of Ethics as it pertains to relations with clients and employers.'",
"There can be no question of the basic right of an American citizen to resign from one position and accept another or initiate a business of his own." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 102 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T16:27:05.305721"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 102 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
102
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-02T16:16:15.886386+00:00
First case
102
Generated
2026-03-02T16:16:15.886386+00:00
Attributed to
Case 102 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T16:27:05.305721
Generated by
ProEthica Case 102 Extraction