Adjudication is now a dispute resolution process that most in the UK construction industry are familiar with. The process was introduced by the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, which became effective from May 1998. We have therefore lived with it for almost 15 years. Adjudication is included in all of the standard form contracts, but in any event will be implied, as we all now know, into any contract that meets with the definition of “construction contract” under the Act.
Nicholas Gould
After much debate the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 of Malaysia received Royal Assent on 18 June 2012 . It came into force on the 22 June 2012, and so Malaysia now has a statutory payment and adjudication regime for construction contracts.
The Adjudication Society has recently published four additional Guidance Notes. These are:
1. Guidance Note: Construction Contracts and Construction Operations;
2. Guidance Note: Adjudicator’s Liens;
3. Guidance Note: Natural Justice;
4. Guidance Note: Construction Contracts & Construction Operations.
After much debate the Construction Industry Payment and Adjudication Act 2012 of Malaysia received Royal Assent on 18 June 2012. [Rules of Malaysia, Act 746, Construction Industry Payment And Adjudication Act 2012. English Translation.] It came into force on the 22 June 2012, and so Malaysia now has a statutory payment and adjudication regime for construction contracts.
There are a limited number of books available dealing with the international FIDIC suite of standard form contracts. This new publication covering law and practice is, therefore, extremely welcome. A medley of experienced authors led by Ellis Baker have produced a very useful and concise text that does more than simply analyse the FIDIC contracts from start to finish on a clause by clause basis.
Much gratitude should go to Liam Holder and Stephen Clarke of the Adjudication Society for all of their efforts in conducting the questionnaire survey. Please do have a look at the article below setting out the main findings. The purpose as you may recall was to obtain feedback from the Adjudication Society members in order to develop a 3 – 5 year plan for the Society. We had an excellent response, and from that we intend to develop a plan which can be proposed at the AGM. The AGM will be held at the annual conference in London on 12 November 2009.
A few books provide a short but concise introduction to the many forms of dispute resolution that now exist in the construction industry1. The Engineer’s Dispute Resolution Handbook, edited by Dr Robert Gaitskell QC, does just that. It provides a short concise and user friendly overview of the many dispute resolution procedures that are encountered in the industry. It covers litigation in the Technology and Construction Court, arbitration, of course, adjudication as well as mediation and expert determination and the relatively little used, early neutral evaluation technique.
Several years ago His Honour Judge Anthony Thornton QC, during his keynote address at the Annual Adjudication Society, proposed that there should be a code of conduct for adjudicators. He thought that the Adjudication Society was well placed to develop such a code. While it has taken some time to develop, the Adjudication Society sets out below a draft protocol for construction adjudicators. It is a product of discussions and debates with a number of legal and construction professionals with considerable, and in some cases very considerable, experience of adjudication.
It’s about time that a new detailed construction law publication hit the shelves, and here it is. This book deals in detail with a wide range of current legal issues that arise in respect of construction contracts. The book initially deals with formation of contract (as indeed do most books on construction law), but then neatly covers liability, performance, breach, determination and damages in a modern and up-to-date context.
Dispute boards have been used on major international projects for some years, although it is only recently that dispute boards have become widely recognised. The international development banks have adopted the FIDIC Dispute Adjudication Board (DAB) approach to dispute boards, and the World Bank has more recently adopted a harmonised edition of the FIDIC conditions of contract, which also provides for DABs.