Confidentiality Limits Public Law Obligation
Class
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityLimitsPublicLawObligation
Class Hierarchy
- Thing
- ↳ entity (bfo)
- ↳ continuant (bfo)
- ↳ generically dependent continuant (bfo)
- ↳ information content entity (iao)
- ↳ directive information entity (iao)
- ↳ Obligation (proethica-core)
- ↳ Ethical Obligation (proethica-intermediate)
- ↳ ConfidentialityLimitsPublicLawObligation
Definition
Duty of an engineer to recognize that confidentiality obligations owed to a client do not extend to concealing the client's substantial violations of federal or state law that implicate public welfare or environmental protection, and that the duty to report such violations to appropriate authorities overrides any residual confidentiality interest in the information.
Inherited from ClientInstructionLimitsObligation
Duty of an engineer to decline client instructions that would require violating professional ethics obligations, recognizing that the faithful agent duty does not extend to complying with directives that breach professional standards.
Case Provenance
Discovered in
This class was discovered during extraction of the case(s) above; the supporting verbatim quotes are in Source Evidence.
Properties
Confidence
0.83
Derived From Principle
Post-Engagement Client Conduct Disclosure Principle
Enforcement Level
mandatory
Monitoring Criteria
Evidence that the engineer did not allow confidentiality concerns to prevent reporting of a directly observed, substantial violation of law to the appropriate authority.
Nspe Reference
I.1, III.4
Obligation Type
ethical
Stakeholders Affected
Client
General public
Regulatory authorities
Violation Consequences
Invoking confidentiality to shield a client's ongoing statutory violation from regulatory authorities constitutes a misuse of the confidentiality obligation and may result in professional discipline.
Property Structure
1 · Object and Data Properties
rdfs:domain on this class or ancestor
| Property | Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| competesWith inherited | Obligation | Relates an obligation to another obligation with which it stands in normative tension within a case. Symmetric: if O1 competes with O2 then O2 competes with O1. Does not itself specify which obligation prevails; use prevailsOver for the directed resolution. |
| defeasibleUnder inherited | State | Relates an obligation to a State whose obtaining renders the obligation defeasible, that is, subject to override by a competing obligation with stronger normative support. The State specifies the context in which the obligation yields. |
| derivedFromPrinciple inherited | Principle | Relates an obligation to the principle or principles it operationalizes. The obligation gives concrete directive force to the more abstract value the principle expresses (Dennis et al. 2016). |
| establishedBy inherited | CodeProvision | Indicates which code provision establishes this ethical concept. |
| obligatedParty inherited | Agent | Relates an Obligation to the Agent that bears it (the by-whom slot of the Richardson 1990 specification scheme, adopted by Dennis et al. 2016). The duty-bearer of the obligation in the case scenario. |
| prevailsOver inherited | Obligation | Relates an obligation to another obligation that it defeats under the conditions of the case. The prevailing obligation retains its force; the defeated obligation is subordinated to it. Use together with defeasibleUnder to record the State that licenses the resolution. |
| requiresCapability inherited | Capability | Relates an obligation to a capability its discharge presupposes. An obligation can be discharged only by an agent that possesses the required capability, the ought-implies-can principle of deontic logic (Kant's dictum, whose computational analogue Stenseke 2024 develops as moral tractability); in this framework an agent that lacks the required capability leaves the obligation subject to override, recorded via defeasibleUnder. |
2 · Definitional Attributes
SHACL definitional shape
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| obligation type | obligationType | The controlled NSPE obligation category, which drives the subClassOf core:Obligation typing: disclosure, safety, competence, confidentiality, reporting, collegial, attribution, legal, ethical. |
3 · Bearer Attributes
SHACL property shape
individual data
| Attribute | Property (sh:path) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| obligation statement | obligationStatement | The concrete duty the obligation states (the operative 'shall' clause). |
| derived from principle | derivedFromPrinciple | The principle the obligation derives from, via the O->P derivedFromPrinciple edge (the P side of R->P->O). Range: Principle. |
| obligated party | obligatedParty | The agent who bears the obligation, via the obligatedParty edge. Range: Agent. |
| temporal scope | temporalScope | When the obligation is in force (the period or condition of applicability). |
| compliance status | complianceStatus | Whether the obligation was met in the case: met, unmet, partial, or unclear. |
4 · Referenced By
rdfs:range on this class or ancestor
| From | Property | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Action | fulfillsObligation inherited | Relates an action to obligations it fulfills. The action realizes the directive content of the obligation. |
| Action | raisesObligation inherited | Relates an action to an obligation it puts at stake without itself resolving it. The fulfillment or breach occurs at a downstream action in the same chain. This third predicate distinguishes an upstream choice that engages an obligation from the downstream action that satisfies or breaches it; without it the same obligation appears as both fulfilled and violated across adjacent steps. |
| Action | violatesObligation inherited | Relates an action to an obligation it breaches. The action fails to realize the directive content of the obligation, the negative counterpart of fulfillsObligation. |
| Code Provision | establishes inherited | Relates a code provision to the ethical concepts (principles, obligations, constraints) it establishes or defines. |
| Obligation | competesWith inherited | Relates an obligation to another obligation with which it stands in normative tension within a case. Symmetric: if O1 competes with O2 then O2 competes with O1. Does not itself specify which obligation prevails; use prevailsOver for the directed resolution. |
| Obligation | prevailsOver inherited | Relates an obligation to another obligation that it defeats under the conditions of the case. The prevailing obligation retains its force; the defeated obligation is subordinated to it. Use together with defeasibleUnder to record the State that licenses the resolution. |
| Role | hasObligation inherited | Relates a role to an obligation borne in that standing. The Role-wide domain enables the edge for any role without committing existence; obligation-generation is axiomatized on proeth:ProfessionalRole (subClassOf hasObligation some Obligation) in the intermediate layer, and a participant role may bear case-asserted obligations without profession-generated ones. |
| State | activatesObligation inherited | Relates a State to an Obligation that the obtaining of the State makes applicable. This is the forward, activating complement of defeasibleUnder (which records the State under which an obligation yields): a state such as hazard exposure or an undertaken commitment can bring an obligation into force for the role-bearers it concerns. |
Source Evidence
Text references
Engineer A performs wetland delineation services on the client's wetland site.
The installation of the fill material is a substantial violation of the federal and state laws and regulations.
he drives by his client's property and notices that the client has installed a substantial amount of fill material on more than 1/2 an acre across a portion of the wetlands without any permits, variances, or permissions.
Source text
Engineer A performs wetland delineation services on the client's wetland site.
Used in cases 1
Case ontologies that instantiate this class or one of its base-ontology descendants. Computed from each individual's type, so the list stays current as cases are extracted. The originating case is shown under Extraction details.
Case 86@prefix core: <http://proethica.org/ontology/core#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix pcsh: <http://proethica.org/shapes/core#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-prov: <http://proethica.org/provenance#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix sh: <http://www.w3.org/ns/shacl#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
proeth:ConfidentialityLimitsPublicLawObligation a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Limits Public Law Obligation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.83" ;
proeth:derivedFromPrinciple "Post-Engagement Client Conduct Disclosure Principle" ;
proeth:enforcementLevel "mandatory" ;
proeth:monitoringCriteria "Evidence that the engineer did not allow confidentiality concerns to prevent reporting of a directly observed, substantial violation of law to the appropriate authority." ;
proeth:nspeReference "I.1, III.4" ;
proeth:obligationType "ethical" ;
proeth:stakeholdersAffected "Client",
"General public",
"Regulatory authorities" ;
proeth:textReferences "Engineer A performs wetland delineation services on the client's wetland site.",
"The installation of the fill material is a substantial violation of the federal and state laws and regulations.",
"he drives by his client's property and notices that the client has installed a substantial amount of fill material on more than 1/2 an acre across a portion of the wetlands without any permits, variances, or permissions." ;
proeth:violationConsequences "Invoking confidentiality to shield a client's ongoing statutory violation from regulatory authorities constitutes a misuse of the confidentiality obligation and may result in professional discipline." ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInCase 86 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInPass 2 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInSection "facts" ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredAt "2026-06-04T17:30:01.042237+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredInCase 86 ;
proeth-prov:matchConfidence 0.72 ;
proeth-prov:matchReasoning "The existing Client Instruction Limits Obligation addresses the duty to decline client instructions that would require violating professional ethics. The present class addresses the analogous situation where a confidentiality obligation, rather than a client instruction, is invoked to shield a statutory violation. The concept is related but distinct enough to warrant a separate class. The existing Confidentiality Obligation class in the ontology is too general. The closest match is Client Instruction Limits Obligation as a structural analog, but confidence is moderate because the mechanism differs." ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyClass proeth:ClientInstructionLimitsObligation ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyLabel "Client Instruction Limits Obligation" ;
proeth-prov:matchesExisting true ;
proeth-prov:sourceText "Engineer A performs wetland delineation services on the client's wetland site." ;
rdfs:comment "Duty of an engineer to recognize that confidentiality obligations owed to a client do not extend to concealing the client's substantial violations of federal or state law that implicate public welfare or environmental protection, and that the duty to report such violations to appropriate authorities overrides any residual confidentiality interest in the information." ;
rdfs:subClassOf proeth:EthicalObligation ;
skos:definition "Duty of an engineer to recognize that confidentiality obligations owed to a client do not extend to concealing the client's substantial violations of federal or state law that implicate public welfare or environmental protection, and that the duty to report such violations to appropriate authorities overrides any residual confidentiality interest in the information." ;
skos:scopeNote "[ClientInstructionLimitsObligation] Duty of an engineer to decline client instructions that would require violating professional ethics obligations, recognizing that the faithful agent duty does not extend to complying with directives that breach professional standards." ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-06-04T17:30:01.042237+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasAttributedTo "Case 86 Extraction",
"claude-sonnet-4-6" .
pcsh:CaseAnnotationShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Shared per-case annotation schema (all nine components)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "The cross-component annotation fields on committed case individuals: proeth:confidence (extraction confidence, decimal; all components except Action, whose Step-3 contract carries no confidence field), proeth:textReferences (verbatim supporting quotes, universal), proeth-prov sourceText (the source snippet, on the Step-1/2 provenance layers; Step-3 A/E individuals ground via textReferences only), and the involvement gloss (proeth:caseInvolvement on role individuals, proeth:caseContext on obligation, capability, and constraint individuals). Values are per-individual; the fields do not individuate any type."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "Extraction confidence for this individual (0 to 1)." ;
sh:name "confidence" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:confidence ],
[ sh:description "Verbatim case quotes supporting this individual." ;
sh:name "text references" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path proeth:textReferences ],
[ sh:description "How this individual figures in the case narrative (role individuals; the same text is routed into rdfs:comment)." ;
sh:name "case involvement" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path proeth:caseInvolvement ],
[ sh:description "Grounding context in this case (obligation, capability, and constraint individuals)." ;
sh:name "case context" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:caseContext ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Action,
core:Capability,
core:Constraint,
core:Event,
core:Obligation,
core:Principle,
core:Resource,
core:Role,
core:State .
pcsh:ObligationDefinitionShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Obligation definition schema (type-level, descriptive, field contract)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What individuates an obligation TYPE: its controlled NSPE category, which drives the subClassOf core:Obligation typing. The concrete duty statement and the temporal-scope/compliance-status literals are per-individual, as are the derivedFromPrinciple and obligatedParty edges; all are declared on ObligationPropertyShape, mirroring the Role/Principle Definition/Property split. Descriptive only (no validation result); obligation_type is a routing input, not stored as a literal."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The controlled NSPE obligation category, which drives the subClassOf core:Obligation typing: disclosure, safety, competence, confidentiality, reporting, collegial, attribution, legal, ethical." ;
sh:name "obligation type" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:obligationType ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Obligation .
pcsh:ObligationPropertyShape a sh:NodeShape ;
rdfs:label "Obligation per-case schema (individual data, non-definitional)"@en ;
rdfs:comment "What a given obligation INDIVIDUAL is described by in a specific case: the concrete duty it states, the principle it derives from and the party who bears it (both edges), and its temporal scope and compliance status. These do NOT individuate the obligation TYPE (that is ObligationDefinitionShape); their values are per-case, asserted on the individual. Descriptive only."@en ;
sh:property [ sh:description "The concrete duty the obligation states (the operative 'shall' clause)." ;
sh:name "obligation statement" ;
sh:order 1 ;
sh:path proeth:obligationStatement ],
[ sh:description "The principle the obligation derives from, via the O->P derivedFromPrinciple edge (the P side of R->P->O). Range: Principle." ;
sh:name "derived from principle" ;
sh:order 2 ;
sh:path core:derivedFromPrinciple ],
[ sh:description "The agent who bears the obligation, via the obligatedParty edge. Range: Agent." ;
sh:name "obligated party" ;
sh:order 3 ;
sh:path core:obligatedParty ],
[ sh:description "When the obligation is in force (the period or condition of applicability)." ;
sh:name "temporal scope" ;
sh:order 4 ;
sh:path proeth:temporalScope ],
[ sh:description "Whether the obligation was met in the case: met, unmet, partial, or unclear." ;
sh:name "compliance status" ;
sh:order 5 ;
sh:path proeth:complianceStatus ] ;
sh:targetClass core:Obligation .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
86
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-06-04T17:30:01.042237+00:00
First case
86
Match Confidence
0.72
Match Reasoning
The existing Client Instruction Limits Obligation addresses the duty to decline client instructions that would require violating professional ethics. The present class addresses the analogous situation where a confidentiality obligation, rather than a client instruction, is invoked to shield a statutory violation. The concept is related but distinct enough to warrant a separate class. The existing Confidentiality Obligation class in the ontology is too general. The closest match is Client Instruction Limits Obligation as a structural analog, but confidence is moderate because the mechanism differs.
Matched Ontology Label
Client Instruction Limits Obligation
Matches Existing
true
Generated
2026-06-04T17:30:01.042237+00:00
Attributed to
['Case 86 Extraction', 'claude-sonnet-4-6']