Kluwer Construction Blog

The inaugural Youth Olympic Games hosted by Singapore in August last year left a positive impression on Singapore’s young guests. The fanfare would have been much bigger had the Singapore Sports Hub been available for the event.

At an estimated cost of S$1.33 billion, the new Sports Hub will boast a 55,000-seater retractable roof stadium, a 6,000-capacity Indoor Aquatic Centre, a 3,000-capacity Multi-Purpose Arena and a Water Sports Centre.

Despite the tender being awarded by the Singapore government in 2008, the PPP project commenced construction only in September 2010 – the result of delays from the 2008-2009 global financial crisis and high construction costs. It is now expected to [...]

The 2010 International Arbitration Survey by the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary College, University of London, represents one of the largest empirical studies ever undertaken of corporate attitudes and practices regarding international arbitration. The focus – key factors influencing corporate decisions on international arbitration.

The 2010 survey sees a much broadened territorial scope to include emerging venues such as Singapore together with the established venues of London, Paris, Switzerland and New York.

The key factors influencing international arbitration identified by the survey are not surprising – governing law, seat of arbitration, choice of arbitral insti [...]

Without doubt, technology has helped develop a truly global legal community, and lawyers today routinely work with clients around the world.

It is natural, therefore, that parties in contract negotiations would rely on technology to find changes in the document being negotiated, particularly where proposing amendments and developing clauses.

In the past, we would rely on the other side to direct us to amended clauses in a contract or to relay the substance of the proposed or incorporated amendment. In some instances, we would have to read the document from top to bottom to identify each and every change.

Today, thanks to technology, we rely on ‘track changes’ or compare software which [...]

I had a great meal in an ethnic Indian restaurant recently and was pleasantly surprised to discover that the cook was an overseas Chinese!

The construction industry, like the food and beverage business, shows considerable partiality to foreign workers. The most common reason – lower labour costs. Thus, the construction industry is filled with foreign workers running the gamut from India, Sri Lanka, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and even Myanmar.

Things however look set to change with the 2010 budget announcement including a call to increase local productivity as foreign workers now comprise almost a third of the total workforce. This has led to government moves to reduce dependence [...]

Court resources are scarce. This is a universal truth, although no one seems to have cracked the code that will solve the problem.

The answer may be as simple as alternative dispute resolution. Sensible commercial parties have always engaged in ADR and more and more jurisdictions around the world are promoting a culture where you can’t expect your day in court until you have tried to sort out your dispute yourself.

But can ADR really be forced on to potential litigants?

Although ADR has been promoted in different ways in different countries, the aim has always been the same – to reduce legal costs, increase efficiency, bring about a cultural change and free up limited court resources. [...]

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Arbitration Rules were adopted in 1976, and have been both broadly used and widely praised as simple and straightforward. Remarkably, in 34 years they have not been revised – until now. Revisions were finally approved this summer, and arbitration agreements concluded after August 15, 2010 and referring to the UNCITRAL Rules are presumed to refer to these revised rules, unless the parties otherwise agree. Given the length of time since they were first introduced, significant revisions might have been expected. But in testament to their basic soundness, many of the revisions are little more than tweaks.

The revisions se [...]

In comparison to the Western world, business culture in Russia is more often than not one of confrontation and of mutual tests of strength, especially in the construction sector. Hence the important volumes of court decisions carrying the authority of res judicata to settle a dispute, while alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods such as mediation relying on the parties’ bona fide have been much less used so far.

In this regard, the recent adoption on July 27, 2010 of Federal Laws 193-FZ and 194-FZ improving the legal regime of Mediation (the Mediation Laws) can be seen as a bold and satisfying legislative move to complete the legal framework of ADR in Russia and stimulate the use of [...]

Whilst interest in the recent UK judgment in the case of City Inn v Shepherd Construction may be confined to these shores, it is sufficiently important in the UK construction arena to warrant a mention on this Blog. The level of interest generated by this case initially may seem disproportionate to the complexity of issues and the amounts of money at stake. But ever since the option to adjudicate became compulsory for all UK based “construction contracts” in 1996 (Under the Housing Grants, Construction & Regeneration Act – see opsi), there has been a distinct lack of relevant construction UK case law on matters such as causation and delay – as parties choose the quicker, cheap [...]

When an Owner comes after the Contractor for liquidated delay damages (LDs) after a project is completed late, the Contractor’s only substantive defense is to argue that the delay was excused by force majeure or Owner actions (naturally there may be procedural defenses, like timeliness). However, a recent decision by the United States Court of Federal Appeals for the Federal Circuit has erected a new requirement that the Contractor must first fulfill before it can assert its substantive defense. The decision in question is M. Maropakis Carpentry, Inc. v. United States, ___ F.3d ____, No. 2009-5024 (June 17, 2010). It holds that in order to dispute the basis for an LD assessment by the U [...]

First for the “Lean” – the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Rules 2010 came into effect on 1 July 2010.

This third edition replaces the SIAC Rules 2007 and is part of SIAC’s efforts to stay lean and effective as it keeps apace with the rapid growth of international arbitration.

Key updates include an expedited arbitration procedure for claim amounts less than S$5 m or in cases of exceptional urgency. The expedited process requires an award to be issued within six months from the tribunal being constituted and the reasons for the award may be in “summary form” under the expedited procedure.

Also new to the Rules are the inclusion of a new rule on interim and emergency r [...]