Posts by Monthly digest

  • September 2017 digest: more NEC4

    John Greenleaf Whittier, Barbara Frietchie: “Up from the meadows rich with corn, clear in the cool September morn…” We continued to produce new materials on NEC4 this month, with a new note and new Z clause on Option C of the ECC by Iain Suttie. Not to be outdone by a colleague, John Hughes-D’Aeth contributed 12 Z … Continue reading September 2017 digest: more NEC4

  • June 2016 digest: Brexit

    Charles de Gaulle, who vetoed British accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) for years, speaking in 1967: “There is the Common Market, and for us, there is no problem. For you, there is one: you want to get in, and that is your problem.” Almost fifty years on, how times have changed. There was … Continue reading June 2016 digest: Brexit

  • April 2016 digest: ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall: “Forward, forward let us range, let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.” This month saw a number of legislative changes that will impact on construction practitioners, including significant changes to costs management, new public procurement regulations (which Stella Mitchell and Kate Wall discussed) and amendments to the Construction Industry Scheme … Continue reading April 2016 digest: ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

  • January 2016 digest: frosty mornings and new beginnings

    Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush: “I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-grey, And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires.”

  • July 2014 digest: Denton and JCT

    John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America: “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” Just like June, July has continued to be hot and sunny and to offer us a veritable feast of sport, with the World Cup finals (and Germany as the ultimate victors), Wimbledon, international … Continue reading July 2014 digest: Denton and JCT

  • March 2014 digest: spring time

    Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Question: “I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way, bare winter suddenly was changed to spring.” This month, with the vernal equinox on 20 March, winter officially turned to spring in the northern hemisphere. It was a time when day and night were the same length and it heralded the start of warmer and sunnier days … Continue reading March 2014 digest: spring time

  • August 2010 digest: holidays and the summer recess

    Aristotle said: “The end of labour is to gain leisure.” August is traditionally the month when people take a holiday, and yet this month it has not been at all quiet on the legal front (although the furore over the judgment in City Inn v Shepherd seems to be over). 

  • June 2010 digest: emergency budget, multi-jurisdictional guide and the Scheme

    Freddie Mercury from Queen: “And we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager freaks when we show him the bill. We’re lavish to the bone.” This month saw the government deliver its emergency budget. If only the country’s economics were as straightforward as being a rock star once was.

  • April 2010 digest: Tolent clauses, volcanos and Wembley (again)

    “A volcano is just a mountain with hiccups.” We are unsure where this quote originates, but it was probably of little comfort to the thousands of travellers affected by April’s biggest story, the Icelandic volcanic eruption, which dominated the news and even managed to push the general election off the front pages for a few days.

  • November 2009 digest: rainfall, climate change and Copenhagen

    In the words of Guns N’ Roses (in November Rain): “‘Cause nothin’ lasts forever Even cold November rain” or, if we want to be a bit more highbrow, in the words of Sir Walter Scott: “November’s sky is chill and drear, November’s leaf is red and sear.”

  • July 2009 digest: School holidays, cricket and Japanese knotweed

    Alice Cooper sang “School’s out for summer“. Not only did July mark the start of the school holidays, it also marked the start of the summer vacation for the Royal Courts of Justice. Before the break, the Technology and Construction Court (TCC) had a variety of issues before it: