Dear readers,
In what is now regularly referred to as ‘unprecedented times’, we bring you an issue that focuses on the impact of Covid-19 on construction contracts and projects around the world.
We are delighted to have an opening editorial by David Mosey, the Director of the Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution at King’s College London. Professor Mosey considers how traditional procurement and contracting could change as we recover from the effects of Covid-19, and how new procurement and contracting models could help to bring the industry up to date so that it is better equipped to deal with future risks.
In this issue we do not have our regular ‘FIDIC around the world’ series; however, Joanne Clarke discusses Covid-19 and FIDIC contracts and the protections and entitlements available to the parties under those forms.
Shona Frame, our International Construction Projects Committee Co-Chair, asks whether Covid-19 will be a catalyst for change given the traditionally adversarial nature of the construction industry and the need for parties to work collaboratively to navigate the challenges to which Covid-19 has given rise.
With countries having varying degrees of lockdown, Wala Al-Daraji discusses the important role the construction sector will play in the economic recovery and the UK’s treatment of construction work as ‘essential’.
There is no doubt that many projects around the world are experiencing delays due to the virus. Julia Villalobos considers productivity claims and the necessity to properly document causation so that claims for lost productivity can be substantiated. On time-related issues, Sena Gbedemah discusses the pitfalls of acceleration agreements as parties emerge from lockdown.
Looking closely at particular jurisdictions, Adrian Neville Akol and Albert Mukasa undertake a comparative overview of health and safety measures affecting ongoing construction contracts in Germany and Uganda. Tomasz Darowski, Josef Hlavicka and Ralf Leinemann analyse Covid-19 as a force majeure event in civil law jurisdictions and Emadaldin Abdelrahman looks at Covid-19 from the Egyptian perspective.
Elina Mereminskaya and Álvaro Jara Burotto ask whether the law should foresee the unforeseeable, discussing trends in Chile in the context of the pandemic.
From Asia we have a contribution from Mino Han and Celia Guignet that considers the impact of Covid-19 on the construction industry in South Korea and lastly Kazuma Higuchi discusses the concepts of force majeure and hardship under Japanese Law and their application during Covid-19.
As always, we thank our contributors for their insightful articles and we hope you will enjoy reading this special edition. We invite you all to contribute your thoughts and insights to Construction Law International by submitting your articles to CLInt.submissions@int-bar.org.
Thomas Denehy
Managing Editor, ICP Committee
Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Sydney
thomas.denehy@corrs.com.au
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