Practical Law

Since at least medieval times, philosophers have struggled with what has become known as the “omnipotence paradox“: “If God is all powerful, can s/he create a stone so heavy s/he cannot lift it?” Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes, among others, would no doubt be relieved to know that the English Supreme Court has now resolved … Continue reading Can God create a stone s/he cannot lift? →

In recent years there has been increasing interest as to whether construction professionals need to produce an end design that is fit for purpose or simply to show that they exercised reasonable skill and care. The Court of Appeal’s decision to overturn the first instance judgment in MT Hojgaard v Eon (and the first instance decision … Continue reading Revisiting reasonable skill and care: have construction professionals lost Bolam protection without even noticing? →

As we are all in the process of opening our annual referral notice Christmas presents, I thought you might welcome a brief distraction by considering whether anyone will be able to enforce the pending decision in the New Year. Perhaps surprisingly, 2016 has seen some developments on this front that practitioners need to bear in … Continue reading Is the TCC’s approach to summary judgment in adjudication enforcement changing? →

It’s just possible that, what with keeping up on the recent spate of adjudication enforcement decisions, and wondering whether Brexit would mean that English clubs can’t compete in Europe, you might have missed the fact that Briggs LJ is in the middle of conducting a comprehensive review of the civil courts structure (and the interim report … Continue reading Is the civil courts structure review the end for the TCC? →

The Court of Appeal (in Graves v Brouwer) has taken the opportunity to re-visit the vexed question of how you should go about proving causation where there are a series of possible causes and, perhaps more importantly, how you shouldn’t do it. Anyone faced with a fire claim would do well to take heed. The … Continue reading Avoiding a blind alley: proving causation in an uncertain world →