Construction lawyers and construction companies now seem to take it for granted that construction contracts have to be regulated, without the freedom to contract other industries enjoy.
Should that always be the case? Continue reading
REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes
June 14, 2010
Is the Construction Act necessary?
REUTERS | Mike Blake
June 9, 2010
Electronic disclosure and e-working in the TCC: the impact of the electronic age on documentation
Yesterday evening the Construction Projects Knowledge Management Association invited Mr Justice Ramsey to speak to members and their guests at Keating Chambers. The topic for discussion was the impact of the electronic age on documentation, in terms of:
- E-disclosure problems and solutions.
- E-working in the TCC.
Both the topics pre-date the Jackson report and much has been written about them. That said, there remains a tendency for practitioners to view them as reforms for the future, rather than part and parcel of the here and now. Continue reading
REUTERS | Kim Hong-Ji
CABE (the Commission for Arcitecture and the Built Environment) has published Simpler and Better, a report which argues for the introduction of a minimum design standard for homes, combined with better, leaner regulation of new homes through (for example) the planning and building regulation systems. Continue reading
REUTERS | Brian Snyder
June 8, 2010
Addressing jurisdiction challenges early and clearly
Last month I wrote about rule 6 of Coulson J’s “seven golden rules of adjudication“; his road-map for maximising a party’s chances of having an adjudicator’s decision enforced. This week I thought I would concentrate on rule 2, which I think also merits a comment. Continue reading
REUTERS | Petar Kujundzic
June 1, 2010
It’s probably easier to split hair than it is to split an adjudicator’s decision. Discuss.
The title sounds like an exam question, but is there any truth in the statement?
Since 2008 and the decision in Cantillon v Urvasco, the TCC has been considering the knotty problem of what to do with an adjudicator’s decision when part of the decision is unenforceable for some reason or other. Long gone are the days when it is a simple “all or nothing” on enforcement. Continue reading
REUTERS | Ognen Teofilovski
June 1, 2010
Why is negligence so complex?
Of the various areas of law that make up what is known as “construction law”, I think it is fair to say that negligence and whether a certain loss is recoverable is perhaps the most complex and one which, still today, many years after a snail was found in a bottle of ginger beer, gives rise to the most uncertainty.
That uncertainty concerns, amongst other things, the question of whether the damage caused is to “other property” (when the loss is normally recoverable) or to “the thing itself” (when the loss is not normally recoverable, as it constitutes economic loss). Continue reading
