Takeaways From a Recent English Court Case on Notice Obligations - Many construction contracts provide that the contractor’s entitlement to an extension of time and/or additional cost is conditional upon the service of a...more
Notice of adjudication – how important is that? Included in a number of jurisdictional challenges to an adjudication award was a claim that the notice of adjudication was defective, in not complying with the...more
In international construction contracts, few legal matters are more important than the definitions of "Claim" and "Dispute" or the procedure for the "Dispute Avoidance/Adjudication Board ("DAAB")". These are all the subject...more
The title of my review of the last online FIDIC conference a year ago, FIDIC contracts - a preview of what is to come, now has a somewhat ominous ring to it as for the second year running the International Users’ Conference...more
Maeda Corporation and China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Limited v Bauer Hong Kong Limited handed down in the Hong Kong Court of Appeal has significantly elevated the fundamental importance of so-called...more
As countries emerge from lockdown, talk turns to The Return of COVID-19. Here’s how to succeed in future force majeure claims and stop your projects from becoming what sounds like a second-rate horror movie....more
Large construction projects, by their very nature, carry significant commercial and financial risk for the parties involved. Contributing to this overall risk is the reality that an act of nature or other circumstance beyond...more
The outbreak of the coronavirus has been an unprecedented event affecting every industry, including construction. To ensure their entitlement to an extension of time, costs, or even termination, parties to construction...more
The unprecedented health crisis arising from the novel Coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) and measures enacted by the Spanish Government to contain the spread, has in some cases affected contractual performance. The...more
The rapid spread of COVID-19 has disrupted global commerce, destabilized the world’s leading economies and affected businesses and projects across industries. The construction industry is no exception. COVID-19 has materially...more
COVID-19 has caused a widespread evaluation of how existing therapies could assist in treating this new pathogen. This OnPoint does something similar – though, of course, considerably less important. It examines how dispute...more
Amending standard forms of construction and engineering contracts to change the risk level between the parties is a perennial issue. This, however, can lead to disputes due to amendments not clearly reflecting the intention...more
When does title to goods transfer from a contractor to an employer? This can be a critical issue, especially when a party to a project has become insolvent. A recent English case considered this issue, and the application of...more
Risk in construction contracts - 'Risk', in a project delivery context, can be defined as 'an uncertain event or set of circumstances that, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of one or more of the...more
International Construction Arbitration has received a shock. Consistent with the leading textbooks, a party seeking to rely on force majeure in a construction contract did not have to show that ‘but for’ the force majeure...more
Legal System - 1. Is your jurisdiction primarily a common law, civil law, customary law or theocratic law jurisdiction? Are the laws substantially derived from the laws of another jurisdiction and, if so, which? What...more
Construction and engineering contracts often contain provisions specifying that, within a particular time, one party (traditionally the contractor) must notify the other (the employer and/or the contract administrator) of a...more
The perfect construction project is completed on time, on budget, and in accordance with the Employer’s specification and/or performance requirements. In reality, delays frequently occur and with such delay the potential for...more