International Construction Law Review
COLLABORATING AND CONTRACTING FOR SUCCESS: HOW FUTURE-PROOFED ARE THE NEW NEC4 AND FIDIC 2017 SUITES FOR THE NEEDS OF THE GLOBAL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE?
Charles Blamire-Brown
Partner, Pinsent Masons LLP
charles.blamire-brown@pinsentmasons.com
Danielle Griffiths
Associate, Pinsent Masons LLP
Danielle.griffiths@pinsentmasons.com
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got”, Henry Ford.
It has been widely commented that the construction industry needs to adapt if it is to meet the demands of the construction projects of the future. In this respect, there have been a number of recent updates to standard form construction contracts. This article examines how far the new NEC4 and FIDIC 2017 suites go to address the needs of an increasingly globalised and technologically innovative construction sector.
INTRODUCTION
The challenges construction contracts of the future will need to address
In June 2018, the NEC4 Alliance Contract was released. This is the latest in a round of updates to several widely used standard form construction contracts, including the NEC,1 FIDIC2 and JCT suites.3 The close proximity
1 The new suite of NEC contracts (NEC4) was published on 22 June 2017 with the NEC4 Alliance Contract being released on 20 June 2018.
2 The FIDIC White Book 2017 was released in Spring of 2017 with the Red, Yellow and Silver Book updates being released in December 2017. Errata to the second editions were published in December 2018. At the time of writing, FIDIC’s Conditions of Contract for Tunnelling and Underground Works, the Emerald Book, has just been released (May 2019).
3 The updates to the JCT suite commenced on 15 June 2016 with the release of the Minor Works Building Contract family and were completed by the release of the Management Building Contract family and Construction Management family on 30 June 2017. The Standard Building Contract family updates were released on 31 October 2016.
Pt 3] Collaborating and Contracting for Success: How Future-Proofed
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