Tales of the Unexpected: Where Liability Lurks Unseen

by Melanie Grimmitt

Uncertainty in the Application of UAE Laws

The UAE legal system is a civil code system based on both Islamic and civil code principles. Any contract subject to UAE law must comply with the UAE Constitution, Federal and local Emirate laws, Islamic Shari’a and custom and practice.

There are challenges in deciding how the law of the UAE will be applied in any particular case. This is due to a number of factors. The UAE legal system is still very much in its infancy, the collision of French – via Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries – civil code principles and Islamic Shari’a principles, the lack of judicial precedent – previous decisions may be useful but do not create any binding or persuasive precedent to the court, and the difficulty of predicting which legal principles and/or custom and practice a judge will apply when reaching a decision. [Read more…]

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Tests on Completion under the FIDIC Yellow Book

by Sarah Thomas

I am a contractor working on a wastewater project in Eastern Europe, using the FIDIC Yellow Book –Design & Build. Vol.3 of our contract contains the following clause: [Read more…]

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Letters of Intent: Still Crazy After All These Years?

by Melanie Grimmitt

Reviewing the wealth of commentary on the use of letters of intent in construction contracts, one might speculate that at the time the pyramids were being built some well-intentioned Egyptian lawyer was earnestly hammering out hieroglyphics warning his contemporaries of the potentially dire consequences of commencing construction works without a concluded contract in place. Nevertheless, despite the plentiful guidance cautioning contractors against relying on letters of intent which has been produced by legal professionals in more modern times, a significant proportion of construction projects do, in fact, proceed on the basis of a letter of intent. This practice is particularly common within the UAE and the wider Gulf Region. [Read more…]

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Record what happened, when it happened – the importance of ‘contemporary records’

by Sachin Kerur

A large part of the administration of a construction contract comprises a contractor seeking genuine contractual entitlements for additional time and costs and the determination and award or rejection of those claimed entitlements by the engineer/employer. As a result, contractor’s claims for extensions of time and additional costs are also often the subject of arbitral proceedings and litigation. [Read more…]

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Liquidated Damages in PPP Transactions

by Melanie Grimmitt

One of the most interesting aspects of working in different jurisdictions is seeing how different regions approach the same issues in different ways – both legally and commercially. An example of this in the context of PPP transactions, is the differing approach taken in the UK and the Middle East in respect the inclusion of delay liquidated damages regimes in Project Agreements. [Read more…]

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When is it safe to terminate under a contract?

by Vincent Connor

Volcanoes – we have rather a lot of them in Asia, but even we’ve been obsessing about the infamous Icelandic one, this week. Though 6000 or more miles away from the action, Japanese car manufacturers relying on components from Ireland and Korean mobile phone suppliers ready to send their wireless wares to a waiting world, have been among those frustrated as the volcanic ash cloud has choked airfreight routes. Which got me thinking…not so much about force majeure (I’ll leave that to my holidaying partners examining their insurance documents to seek support for their compensation claims!) but about the options a contracting party faces when the party with whom he’s entered into an agreement has breached a material provision (say, a delivery date): should he accept that party’s repudiation and sue for damages or simply terminate it in accordance with the procedure provided for in the agreement? [Read more…]

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When is a Termination not a Termination?

by Sarah Thomas

Answer: when it’s an affirmation. Consider the questions which Shell raised in an appeal case recently decided by the High Court (commented on by Connor in his last post): [Read more…]

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The ‘notices’ provision

by Dennis Brand
Many of you will deal with industry-standard form contracts, while others will deal with company standard or even bespoke forms; whatever the form of contract, the notices provision contained in the conditions of contract is probably one of the least-read provisions. The notices provision does not attract the same degree of interest as, say, the variation or change order provisions, or provisions which deal with certificates of completion, suspension or even termination, but in each case a notice is required.

[Read more…]

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Leading causes of project failure in region

 

The majority of respondents pointed to improper planning and methodology (78 per cent), lack of communication (75 percent), and unrealistic target completion dates (67 percent) as the top three contributing factors to project failure. They also identified inadequate commitment and involvement from senior management (59 percent), insufficient budgets and resources (56 percent), too many assumptions and unknowns (51 percent), project politics and conflicts (38 percent), lack of set targets or measurable results (45 percent), and the formation of the wrong project team (27 percent) as other major causes. [Read more…]

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PPP PROJECTS IN BRAZIL: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND ENGINEERING INDUSTRIES

by Júlio César Bueno

Federal Law No. 11079, 2004 [PPP LAW] instituted the general rules for bidding and contracting of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) within the realm of public administration. This is an important volley in the Brazilian government efforts to develop funding and management alternatives for public works in furtherance of the bidding system instituted by the Federal Law No. 8666, 1993 [Brazilian BIDDING LAW] and to reduce the state presence in the Brazilian economy. [Read more…]

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