Report from the FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference 2010
Editor’s note: please note that this post was written by the author before England’s rather ignominious exit from the World Cup!
It seems there is no escaping the football. I’ve come to the FIDIC International Contract Users’ Conference 2010, being held in Beijing this week, for my routine update on the federation’s standard form publishing and training efforts. Now, one might expect that given China’s national team are not a feature of a certain international football tournament taking place in South Africa, Beijing might be the place to get away from the current hysteria gripping those among the human race who are privileged enough to have access to a television that screens the [...]
Controversy Grows, But US Supreme Court Continues to Strongly Back Arbitration
The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding cases regarding arbitration at (for them) a furious pace recently, and the latest decision (Rent-A-Center West, Inc. v. Jackson, 2010 WL 2471058 (June 21, 2010)) reconfirms the Court’s continued strong support for enforcing arbitration agreements as written, even where this deprives the courts of any significant role in determining threshold questions of arbitrability.
The Rent-A-Center decision is complex, and well illustrates the very fine distinctions being made in the U.S. law of arbitration, but which have the net effect of strengthening the arbitrators’ role at the expense of the courts. The underlying broader issue is whether it is for the [...]
Update on the law of arbitration in the UAE
Arbitration has long been established as a method of dispute resolution in the Middle East. In recent times, with the enormous economic growth experienced in the region, and the UAE’s liberal approach to foreign investment, the provision for solving disputes by arbitration has become even more prominent in commercial contracts, aided in part by the fact that it is the favoured method of resolving disputes under many standard form construction contracts.
The UAE has been a signatory to the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, commonly known as the “New York Convention”, since 1996, but there is currently no federal legislation in force that is solely conce [...]
Levy of VAT on Sale of Flats in India
The activity of construction is liable to Value Added Tax (“VAT”) on “the transfer of property in goods involved in the execution of a Works contract”, under the extended definition of Sale, pursuant to introduction of Article 366(29A) by the 46th Amendment in the Constitution of India.
This blog considers the issues arising when a person goes and buys a flat or a commercial property from a builder; is it a “Sale”, and can the activity be amenable to a levy of VAT? The controversy emanates from the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in K. Raheja Development Corporation [141 STC 298 (S.C)], wherein, it was held that if the Agreement is entered into after the flat or unit is a [...]
Record what happened, when it happened – the importance of ‘contemporary records’
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.
Under both the contractual process and subsequent formal dispute resolution proceedings, contemporary records form a critical part of the evidence to be utilised in evaluating the contractual entitlement. The importance of good record keeping – by both contractors and employer’s agents or enginee [...]
Letters of Intent: Still Crazy After All These Years?
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 withi [...]
