How the AICP Code of Ethics is organized

Read the Code itself. This lesson summarizes the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct in our own words. The Code is short, it's tested directly, and its exact wording matters. Read the current Code on APA's website alongside this lesson, and read it through once more before exam day. The current Code was revised in November 2021 and took effect on January 1, 2022; APA bases the exam's ethics questions on it.

Learning objectives

• Describe how the AICP Code is organized, and explain the difference between aspirational principles and enforceable Rules of Conduct.
• Name the five groups of aspirational principles and give an example from each.
• Explain how members get ethics advice: informal advice and formal advisory opinions.
• Describe how a charge of misconduct is filed, investigated, and resolved, and the sanctions available.
• Recognize which part of the Code an exam question is really asking about.

Key concepts

Who the Code applies to

The Code speaks to two audiences. Its aspirational principles are written for everyone who takes part in planning: planners, advisory bodies such as planning commissions, and decision-makers. Its Rules of Conduct bind AICP members (certified planners), who can be disciplined for breaking them. Someone who isn't an AICP member, such as most elected officials and many staff planners, can't be charged under the Code; they answer to government ethics laws and their employer's policies instead. On the exam, "the Code" means the AICP Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

The Code reaches you before certification, too: when you register for the exam, you confirm that you abide by it.

6 more sections follow in the full lesson.