Monthly Archives: December 2022

REUTERS | Toby Melville
December 13, 2022

FIDIC contracts – update on Conference and Rainbow Suite

I think all of the attendees of the FIDIC 2022 International Users’ Conference in London in November 2022 were delighted to be able to congregate in person, after two successive years of an on-line conference due to general pandemic restrictions. I know I was – not least because it meant I didn’t have to contend with any “you’re on mute” moments during my presentation on industry feedback and early use of FIDIC Green Book 2021.

It is six years since FIDIC unveiled the pre-release of the 2017 Yellow Book, and in this conference it felt like we’ve moved away from the training and explanations of how the 2017 suite works as compared to the well-regarded 1999 suite of contracts. Instead, this conference focused on the use of the contracts: how both the 1999 and 2017 suites have withstood the (many) tests that COVID, the war in Ukraine and global inflation have thrown up and the challenges these raise for projects. In addition, this conference launched the 2022 reprint of the 2017 Red, Yellow and Silver Books, which have all been updated and now include some (not insignificant) amendments to the original 2017 versions. Another launch at this conference was the enormous FIDIC Contracts Guide 2022. Continue reading →

REUTERS |
December 9, 2022

Episode 17 of The Construction Briefing out now

In episode 17, Michelle Rousell and Yassir Mahmood from Practical Law Construction consider a number of topics:

  • The interaction between adjudication enforcement and section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 in Northumbrian Water Ltd v Doosan Enpure Ltd and another [2022] EWHC 2881 (TCC).
  • Confusion over CE marks.
  • The private sector construction playbook.
  • More building safety developments, including a building safety levy consultation, more SIs and Practical Law’s updated resources to reflect proposed changes to building control and building regulations.

The podcast ends with a cautionary tale about using social media.

The Construction Briefing is an alternative way of learning about key developments in construction law, with our editorial team discussing some of the wider issues those developments raise.

You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify), enabling you to download and listen to all episodes on the go on your phone. Alternatively, you can use our audio and video RSS feed to access the latest edition as soon as it is published.

REUTERS | Toby Melville
December 6, 2022

Adjudication enforcement proceedings not stayed to arbitration

Back in July, I wrote about the judgment in Metropolitan Borough Council of Sefton v Allenbuild Ltd, where HHJ Hodge QC in the TCC in Manchester enforced an adjudicator’s decision and, in so doing, rejected an application under section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996 for a stay pending referral of the dispute to arbitration. At the time, I suggested that this topic was:

“… quite rare in adjudication enforcement proceedings, but possibly not as rare as hens’ teeth!”

Well, not six months have gone by and we have another case. This time, its the judgment in Northumbrian Water Ltd v Doosan Enpure Ltd and another, and it was O’Farrell J in the TCC in London who enforced the adjudicator’s decision and rejected the defendant’s section 9 application.  Continue reading →

REUTERS | Lim Huey Teng
December 2, 2022

Contractual construction: the Tension

When the courts are faced with questions of contractual construction there remains a tension in the approach they should take. As Sir Kim Lewison said in The Interpretation of Contracts, there is a tension between:

“… a decision of the Supreme Court which had emphasised the primacy of the contractual language over background facts on the one hand, and the repeated statements that contractual interpretation is an iterative exercise which requires consideration of the commercial consequences of rival interpretations”.

I will refer to this as “the Tension”.

This post serves to highlight the existence of the Tension in the court’s approach to contractual construction in light of the recent case of Solutions 4 North Tyneside Ltd v Galliford Try Building 2014 Ltd. Continue reading →

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