International Construction Law Review
150 YEARS OF A SPECIALIST CONSTRUCTION COURT
Sir Vivian Ramsey1
International arbitrator and Judge of
the Singapore International Commercial Court
INTRODUCTION
This article is written in the 150th anniversary year of the specialist construction court, known for the last 25 of those years as the Technology and Construction Court (TCC). In it I examine the development of the court, from its Official Referee2 origins and evaluate its work and importance, both in the English legal system and, most recently, internationally.
The TCC is the principal source of construction law in England and Wales.3 The decisions of that court of first instance have established principles of construction law which have been applied throughout the world. This is particularly so because international construction contracts, whatever the applicable law, use provisions derived from an English common law background. Those principles are applied by courts, in arbitration and in resolving disputes by other forms of dispute resolution.
THE NEED FOR A SPECIALIST PROCEDURE: THE 19TH CENTURY
The need for a specialist procedure to deal with construction disputes had become acute by the mid-1800s. It arose from two competing causes: a high level of demand and the inadequacy of the English legal system to meet it.
The English courts, which offered the only formal system for resolving these disputes, were notoriously inefficient and ill-suited to the task. To try to address the deep-seated faults of the court system, a Royal Commission was appointed by the government, headed by Lord Cairns, a senior appellate judge. The recommendations were wide-ranging, including the
1 The author was a judge in the Technology and Construction Court from 2005–2014 and became Judge in Charge of the Court in 2007. Since 2015, he has practised as an international arbitrator and sits as a Judge of the Singapore International Commercial Court. The author is greatly indebted to Professor Anthony Lavers for his diligent research and assistance in producing this article.
2 In this article “Official Referee” is capitalised but many times is cited in lower case.
3 Reference throughout is to English law and the English legal system in the interests of brevity. No disrespect is thereby intended thereby.
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