What is Due Diligence Engineering (part 2)
A previous blog noted that due diligence engineering is the reverse engineering of the decisions of our courts. The overall context to this observation is worth exploring.
The diagram below represents a view of the parliamentary structure that is the Commonwealth of Australia within a 19th century philosophical framework.
Essentially the parliamentary process is a method of implementing moral philosophical thought via the medium of legislation and regulation. Of course the difficulty is that predicting the way of the world and managing it in advance is stupendously difficult. For example, simply trying to make the workplace ‘safe’ is a huge undertaking, when all the types of workplaces and environmental circumstances are taken into account. It’s simply not credible that the parliaments and regulators can predict the future so well that they ‘get it right’, all of the time.
This is where due diligence engineering comes in. By watching the outcomes of the courts, both in their interpretation of legislation and regulation, and the common law assessment of ‘fairness’, engineers can align the observed laws of nature with the expressed laws of man. This is especially important in an advanced industrial society where the outcomes of human technological activity can have such huge upsides and calamitous downsides.
This means that in the event that it all goes ‘pear shaped’ recriminations are minimised and the need for apology is eliminated. (It is illogical to say sorry, when the best that should have been done, was done).