There have only been a couple of TCC cases reported since the new year, so I thought I’d use the lull to revisit the subject of meetings in adjudication, and specifically some of the questions that parties might ask about them.
REUTERS | Ilya Naymushin
January 25, 2011
Meeting the adjudicator
REUTERS | Mike Blake
The parties to civil engineering and construction contracts, particularly for energy projects, manufacturing facilities, process plants, waste processing and similar projects, increasingly try to fix a “final frontier” for their exposure to claims, using a limit of liability clause.
Last summer’s GB Gas Holdings (referred to as Centrica) v Accenture reminds us about how limits of liability will be interpreted and, as an employer or contractor, it is important you go some way to understand the effect of your limitation of liability provision. Continue reading
REUTERS | Ricardo Moraes
January 19, 2011
How does Jackson LJ’s option two for disclosure work in practice?
The overwhelming practice in international arbitration is for disclosure to be governed by the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration (the IBA Rules). The IBA Rules’ disclosure requirements are equivalent to option two of Jackson LJ’s proposed menu of options for disclosure (as set out in his preliminary report). In my view, experience of how the IBA Rules work in practice provides some useful lessons about Jackson LJ’s option two.
REUTERS | Paulo Whitaker
In December 2010, I was involved in resisting an application to lift the automatic suspension imposed by regulation 47G(1) of the Public Contracts (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/2992) (2009 Regulations) so as to enable a hospital trust to award a public contract to the successful tenderer.
This post sets out my experience of the court’s approach in considering whether to grant the interim order that the hospital trust sought. Continue reading
REUTERS | Eduardo Munoz
January 18, 2011
Slip rule to the adjudicator’s rescue, again
I have referred to the slip rule in adjudication on a number of occasions, most recently following Ramsey J’s judgment in O’Donnell Developments v Build Ability. It is a handy implied term for those occasions when adjudicators make a mistake.
Akenhead J’s judgment in Redwing v Wishart provides yet another example of an adjudicator getting his maths wrong and then fixing the problem using the slip rule. (I looked at the reasons point last week.)
REUTERS | Beawiharta
January 18, 2011
What does the future hold for contract interpretation?
I’m reading a futurology book at the moment. The author says that the way to predict the future is to understand the causes of events by reference to underlying influences.
He says that politicians (and other powerful people) do not control the world as much as we think. Many of the decisions that they make are the inevitable result of these underlying influences.
One example is geography. Maritime nations have always tended to trade internationally and to prosper because of that trade. Demographics is another underlying influence. Population reduction (and an aging population) in developed countries will influence events and social trends in those countries, resulting in politicians and others inevitably and predictably making certain decisions. Continue reading
REUTERS | Navesh Chitrakar
What are Eurocodes?
The Eurocodes are a flexible, pan-European set of standards for use in structural design. They are divided into ten areas, the first two of which act as the common foundation for the detail that follows: Continue reading
REUTERS | Toby Melville
January 11, 2011
The form of our democracy is no longer bribery – on any scale
The Bribery Act 2010 is expected to come into force in April 2011. It completely overhauls the UK’s fragmented and antiquated anti-corruption regime, replacing it with a modern and comprehensive one, fit for use in today’s global market. Notwithstanding the current cloud of apprehension, the message is clear: be prepared and be corrupt free.
REUTERS | Eduardo Munoz
January 11, 2011
Escrow accounts: how have they worked in practice?
In construction, the employer is usually more fearful that the contractor will go bust than vice versa, hence the whole panoply of security that usually surrounds a construction contract, such as bonds and parent company guarantees.
However, occasionally the boot is on the other foot, particularly if the employer is in straitened financial circumstances or is perhaps a new company with no trading record. In these circumstances, an escrow account may be used.
REUTERS | Tobias Schwarz
January 11, 2011
Reasons for the decision, or were they?
Last year I wrote about the Scottish judgment of WH Malcolm Ltd and Lady Smith’s finding that the adjudicator’s views on a particular issue (SMM7) were not part of her decision, they were just part of her reasons.
Just before Christmas, Akenhead J looked at a very similar issue in Redwing v Wishart. Continue reading