Regulations and Codes of Conduct
Domain 3 - Regulations and Codes of Conduct
This domain tests which rule governs a decision and which rule governs you. Examiners typically combine a legal-hierarchy question (which document prevails) with an ethics question (may the supervisor accept this instruction?).
Core rules
- Hierarchy of authority. 法律 (民法典, 招标投标法, 产品质量法, 安全生产法, 特种设备安全法, 标准化法, 计量法) > 行政法规 (特种设备安全监察条例, 建设工程质量管理条例) > 部门规章 > 地方性法规与规章 > 国家标准/行业标准. A contract clause contradicting a mandatory national standard is void to that extent; a recommended standard (GB/T) binds only when the contract incorporates it.
- 特种设备安全法. Covers boilers, pressure vessels, pressure piping, elevators, hoisting machinery, passenger ropeways, large amusement rides and in-plant dedicated motor vehicles. Design, manufacture, installation, alteration and repair require licensing; 监督检验 is compulsory for manufacture and installation; use requires registration and periodic inspection.
- Code of conduct. Practise within your registered scope; never practise simultaneously for two employers or lend your certificate; decline interests conflicting with the client; keep commercial and technical secrets; sign only what you personally verified; refuse gifts or commissions from contractors.
- Legal consequences. Collusion with a contractor to lower quality creates joint and several liability; transferring supervision business, forging records, or signing for uninspected work brings correction orders, confiscation of illegal gains, fines, downgrade or revocation of qualification, and personal liability for the registered engineer.
Worked example
A manufacturer ships a pressure vessel with two material certificates missing and asks the resident supervisor to "sign the release so nothing is delayed - the certificates will follow". Reasoning: the signature certifies conformity of documentary and physical evidence at that moment; a missing mill certificate destroys traceability of chemistry and mechanical properties, which cannot be recovered after shipment. Do not sign. Correct sequence: issue a written 监理通知单 stating the deficiency, withhold release, require the certificates plus - if traceability is doubtful - re-testing or material re-verification, and escalate to the client if delivery pressure continues.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating a GB/T standard as automatically legally binding without contractual incorporation.
- Believing the chief supervision engineer may approve a design change - that belongs to the designer, routed through the client.
- Forgetting that the supervisor's signature never extinguishes the manufacturer's warranty or quality liability.
- Overlooking the reporting duty: serious findings must go to the client in writing, not just be discussed at a meeting.