Current Case Engineer A Competing Confidentiality-Safety Provision Contextual Balancing
O · Obligation
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136#Current_Case_Engineer_A_Competing_Confidentiality-Safety_Provision_Contextual_Balancing
Properties
Instance of
CompetingConfidentiality-SafetyCodeProvisionContextualBalancingObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#CompetingConfidentiality-SafetyCodeProvisionContextualBalancingObligation
Case context
Current case: Engineer A faces a conflict between the attorney's confidentiality instruction (grounded in Code III.4.) and the paramount public safety obligation (Code II.1.a.); the Board identifies Section II.1.c. as the resolution mechanism.
Compliance status
unmet
Confidence
0.88
Importance
high
Obligated party
Engineer A (current case)
Obligation statement
Engineer A was obligated to recognize the natural tension between the Code's confidentiality obligation and the public safety obligation, and to resolve that tension contextually by applying the Section II.1.c. exception — which the Board identifies as a 'reasonable alternative' available to Engineer A to avert the ethical conflict — rather than treating the attorney's confidentiality instruction as an absolute bar to disclosure.
Temporal scope
Upon discovery of the imminent structural danger and receipt of the attorney's confidentiality instruction
Relationships
derivedFromPrinciple
Competing Code Provision Contextual Balancing — Safety vs. Confidentiality
Source Evidence
Source text
there may be facts and circumstances in which the ethical obligation of engineers in protecting the public health and safety conflict with the ethical obligation of engineers to maintain the right of confidentiality in data and other information obtained on behalf of a client.
Text references
While we recognize that this conflict is a natural tension which exists within the Code, we think that under the facts of this case, there were reasonable alternatives available to Engineer A which could assist him in averting an ethical conflict.
there may be facts and circumstances in which the ethical obligation of engineers in protecting the public health and safety conflict with the ethical obligation of engineers to maintain the right of confidentiality in data and other information obtained on behalf of a client.
TTL
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@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@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#> .
case136:Current_Case_Engineer_A_Competing_Confidentiality-Safety_Provision_Contextual_Balancing a proeth:CompetingConfidentiality-SafetyCodeProvisionContextualBalancingObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Current Case Engineer A Competing Confidentiality-Safety Provision Contextual Balancing" ;
proeth-core:competesWith case136:Engineer_A_Confidentiality_Non-Override_Imminent_Structural_Safety_Compliance_Failure ;
proeth-core:defeasibleUnder <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136#Current_Case:_Confidentiality_vs._Imminent_Public_Danger_Competing_Duties> ;
proeth:casecontext "Current case: Engineer A faces a conflict between the attorney's confidentiality instruction (grounded in Code III.4.) and the paramount public safety obligation (Code II.1.a.); the Board identifies Section II.1.c. as the resolution mechanism." ;
proeth:compliancestatus "unmet" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Obligation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:derivedFromPrinciple <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136#Competing_Code_Provision_Contextual_Balancing_—_Safety_vs._Confidentiality> ;
proeth:discoveredincase "136" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T13:06:01.020008+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "136" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T13:06:01.020008+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:obligatedparty "Engineer A (current case)" ;
proeth:obligationclass "Competing Confidentiality-Safety Code Provision Contextual Balancing Obligation" ;
proeth:obligationstatement "Engineer A was obligated to recognize the natural tension between the Code's confidentiality obligation and the public safety obligation, and to resolve that tension contextually by applying the Section II.1.c. exception — which the Board identifies as a 'reasonable alternative' available to Engineer A to avert the ethical conflict — rather than treating the attorney's confidentiality instruction as an absolute bar to disclosure." ;
proeth:sourcetext "there may be facts and circumstances in which the ethical obligation of engineers in protecting the public health and safety conflict with the ethical obligation of engineers to maintain the right of confidentiality in data and other information obtained on behalf of a client." ;
proeth:temporalscope "Upon discovery of the imminent structural danger and receipt of the attorney's confidentiality instruction" ;
proeth:textreferences "While we recognize that this conflict is a natural tension which exists within the Code, we think that under the facts of this case, there were reasonable alternatives available to Engineer A which could assist him in averting an ethical conflict.",
"there may be facts and circumstances in which the ethical obligation of engineers in protecting the public health and safety conflict with the ethical obligation of engineers to maintain the right of confidentiality in data and other information obtained on behalf of a client." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 136 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T13:14:37.529010"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 136 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
136
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T13:06:01.020008+00:00
First case
136
Generated
2026-03-01T13:06:01.020008+00:00
Attributed to
Case 136 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T13:14:37.529010
Generated by
ProEthica Case 136 Extraction