Delmon draws on an impressive wealth of case studies, to produce a penetrating analysis of risk allocation in PPP projects, reflecting a significant cross-section of international PPP experience. These case studies encompass projects in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, across the resources, telecommunications and construction industries.

In tackling this important topic, Delmon adopts a “divide and conquer” approach whereby he draws a distinction between project risks and country risks, and proceeds to address the issues which arise in each category of risk, ranging from those associated with completion and performance, to those of a political or commercial nature. A lack of information and knowledge on the part of project participants and particularly, lenders, is characterised by the author as “risk noise” which affects the allocation of risk in project financed PPP projects. Delmon provides his own valuable insights into approaching the task of evaluating and implementing “filtering” measures which can mitigate this “risk noise”.

Our second article, “Termination for Convenience: Recovering the Expectancy” (at page 286), by Dr Franco Mastrandrea, provides an analysis of the operation of termination for convenience clauses against a backdrop of the common law of England and the USA, and, standard form contracts including the FIDIC Red Book, American Institute of Architect’s Form A201 and the NEC3 Engineering and Construction Contract. The author traces the origins of the TFC clause to government wartime contracts and explains the historic necessity for governments to have the discretion to terminate wartime contracts following the cessation of hostilities, after which those contracts were rendered nugatory. He acknowledges the severe consequences unchecked exercise of termination for convenience clauses can have, and canvasses some of the legal limitations imposed by law and contractual safeguards which counteract these dangers.

Mastrandrea addresses the important question that arises upon the exercise of a power of termination for convenience: the extent to which an innocent contractor may recover for works yet to be executed. The author goes on to identify a number of standard form contractual provisions which address contractor recovery and to give a valuable summary of the position of the Courts in England and the USA on the matter. This is augmented by a discussion of the impact of limitation and exclusion clauses on contractor recovery. He concludes firstly, that a straightforward reading of the power to terminate