The Intersection of Law and Engineering

We often learn about industrial tools and processes in terms of “if this is true, then that will happen,” in much the same way as we determine homicide under criminal law. And just as an engineer or a designer of factory workflow might understand a process in terms of steps that have to be taken in order to achieve a specific outcome, someone studying law learns that if a certain set of facts is proven, then a particular set of laws will apply to those facts.

For instance, industrial engineers might create a flowchart explaining how to manufacture a specific component of an automobile engine. This will resemble a “decision tree,” which shows the steps that must be taken to manufacture an object successfully. In law, this will take the form of a comprehensive criminal law homicide flowchart, which explains the steps a lawyer must prove if he hopes to show the elements of unlawful homicide.

In a criminal law homicide flowchart, things generally start with whether the defendant killed the victim. Was it intentional, negligent, unintentional? Did the defendant plan it? Were there other circumstances the court should consider? Just as there are many questions the court will ask when determining whether to “move down the decision tree” towards proving someone has committed homicide, there are many questions an engineer asks when trying to figure out how to properly manufacture a tool.

Generally, though, if you follow the steps that an engineer has created to manufacture an object, as illustrated in a sophisticated, high-quality flowchart, then the object will generally come out looking the way it’s supposed to. Likewise, if you follow a high-quality criminal law homicide flowchart, then you should also avoid any mistakes when trying to understand the law.

This flowchart for criminal law homicide is one that I featured in the blog post, The Mystery of Murder: A Complete Criminal Law Murder Flow Chart. It’s a good flowchart that shows the steps that must be followed when determining whether murder has occurred. But this post isn’t just a showcase for this flowchart – it’s also a chance to explore some of the ways that precision in the way we understand law can enhance our understanding of industrial precision.