Legislative Hearing Technical Testimony Objectivity — Dam Configuration Competing Analyses
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/114#Legislative_Hearing_Technical_Testimony_Objectivity_—_Dam_Configuration_Competing_Analyses
Properties
Instance of
LegislativeHearingTechnicalTestimonyObjectivityObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#LegislativeHearingTechnicalTestimonyObjectivityObligation
Applied to
State legislative committee hearing on low-dam versus high-dam bills
Balancing with
Client Loyalty
Dual-Advocate Legislative Peer Criticism Permissibility Principle
Concrete expression
Both the State Power Commission PE and the Private Power Company PE are obligated to ground their legislative testimony in objective engineering analysis and voluminous supporting data — including factual agreement on water flow, soil conditions, rainfall, and runoff — so that the legislature receives technically reliable input for its policy decision on dam configuration.
Confidence
0.92
Importance
high
Interpretation
The objectivity obligation applies equally to both the public agency engineer and the private company engineer; neither is exempt from the requirement to ground testimony in engineering data simply because they represent an advocacy position.
Invoked by
Private Power Company PE Legislative Witness
State Power Commission PE Legislative Witness
Tension resolution
Advocacy of a position is permissible (Rule 10), but advocacy must be grounded in objective engineering analysis — the engineer is an advocate for a technically supported position, not a hired gun for a predetermined conclusion.
Source Evidence
Source text
Canons 5 and 7 refer to expression of 'opinion,' confirming the idea that the engineer is called upon for the expression of his judgment, not the mere recital of known engineering data.
Text references
Canons 5 and 7 refer to expression of 'opinion,' confirming the idea that the engineer is called upon for the expression of his judgment, not the mere recital of known engineering data.
it should be recognized that in the type of case at hand the engineers must base their opinion on estimates of indeterminate factors, e.g., construction cost by one method or another, population growth, economic development of the area and possible future trends in more efficient equipment
TTL
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<http://proethica.org/ontology/case/114#Legislative_Hearing_Technical_Testimony_Objectivity_—_Dam_Configuration_Competing_Analyses> a proeth:LegislativeHearingTechnicalTestimonyObjectivityObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Legislative Hearing Technical Testimony Objectivity — Dam Configuration Competing Analyses" ;
proeth:appliedto "State legislative committee hearing on low-dam versus high-dam bills" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Client Loyalty",
"Dual-Advocate Legislative Peer Criticism Permissibility Principle" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Both the State Power Commission PE and the Private Power Company PE are obligated to ground their legislative testimony in objective engineering analysis and voluminous supporting data — including factual agreement on water flow, soil conditions, rainfall, and runoff — so that the legislature receives technically reliable input for its policy decision on dam configuration." ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "114" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T15:27:43.598741+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "114" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T15:27:43.598741+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The objectivity obligation applies equally to both the public agency engineer and the private company engineer; neither is exempt from the requirement to ground testimony in engineering data simply because they represent an advocacy position." ;
proeth:invokedby "Private Power Company PE Legislative Witness",
"State Power Commission PE Legislative Witness" ;
proeth:principleclass "Legislative Hearing Technical Testimony Objectivity Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Canons 5 and 7 refer to expression of 'opinion,' confirming the idea that the engineer is called upon for the expression of his judgment, not the mere recital of known engineering data." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Advocacy of a position is permissible (Rule 10), but advocacy must be grounded in objective engineering analysis — the engineer is an advocate for a technically supported position, not a hired gun for a predetermined conclusion." ;
proeth:textreferences "Canons 5 and 7 refer to expression of 'opinion,' confirming the idea that the engineer is called upon for the expression of his judgment, not the mere recital of known engineering data.",
"it should be recognized that in the type of case at hand the engineers must base their opinion on estimates of indeterminate factors, e.g., construction cost by one method or another, population growth, economic development of the area and possible future trends in more efficient equipment" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 114 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T15:38:37.746634"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 114 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
114
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-02T15:27:43.598741+00:00
First case
114
Generated
2026-03-02T15:27:43.598741+00:00
Attributed to
Case 114 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T15:38:37.746634
Generated by
ProEthica Case 114 Extraction