ironic - In CWB1's defense I believe he was speaking of the University ethics courses, not those mandated by an employer. As engineers we should all have been exposed to ethical training in one form or another that goes to the heart of appropriate practice and professional behavior (not just CYA attempts by an employer).
As I've thought about it more, I think I agree with CWB1 in principle, though we may disagree somewhat in application. Perhaps I was taking too narrow a view of "peer review." If we soften the definition there a bit to something closer to "somebody who has knowledge of the practices/procedures being applied" I think it makes sense. Am I going to tell a client that I have to increase the fee by 15% or 20% to get another engineer to review the design? No, I'm not. But I also know that the city will review the design for code acceptance, and then a licensed contractor will take the plans and implement them. Are they licensed engineers? No? Do they know how a house is supposed to be built? In most cases, yes. I think this was alluded to previously.
Looking at it from a building structures viewpoint, I would not be at all opposed to instituting a requirement like this on, say, Risk Category 3 and 4 buildings. These buildings are usually of an importance, complexity, and/or size that puts a competent review beyond the reach of most city reviewers and contractors. RC 1 and 2, on the other hand - I think a softer view of "peer" is needed to really understand the true nature of what is being applied, how it's applied, and who is applying it.
I will argue the home inspections and headers don't constitute professional engineering, though I think it comes from a misunderstanding about what's being said. By home inspections, we don't mean the guy who shows up and measures the insulation, looks for cracks, and puts a ground detector in the outlet. We're talking about the inspection that comes after - when that guy finds the cracks or some form of apparent structural damage and says "have a structural engineer investigate the cause and develop repair recommendations." And by header we don't mean a double 2x8 over a 3' window in a bungalow. We mean the header over a 12' entry supporting 3 floors and 4 point loads. It's pretty basic engineering to be sure, but it's still engineering and requires a license in every state I'm aware of.
