ISSUES IN CONSTRUCTION LAW
Formation of Contract, Terms and Interpretation
By Daniel Atkinson
Daniel Atkinson Limited
ISBN: 978 0 9557293 1 7
www.atkinson-law.com
OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO THE CONSTRUCTION BAR AS WELL AS CIVIL ENGINEERS AND ARBITRATORS
An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers
As someone who originally qualified as a civil engineer before being called to the Bar later in life, the author, Daniel Atkinson, is very well placed to share his varied experience and expertise (acquired over the course of a forty year career) in this important work on construction law.
With “Issues in Construction Law”, Atkinson identifies the relevant practical problems that arise from construction practice, as well as the essential legal principles in order to provide answers to questions of the formation, terms and interpretation of contracts.
It’s predictable, therefore, that the book focuses on contracts, because, as is pointed out in the Preface, most disputes in construction law raise questions, first, of whether there is a contact and if there is one, what are its terms and what is the meaning of those terms.
Having been involved in dispute resolution across the full range of engineering disciplines in some 9 countries including the UK, Daniel Atkinson takes the approach of a construction lawyer who actually knows how things are constructed, from marine and offshore facilities to roads, bridges, tunnels and buildings.
From what we can gather, the book contains virtually everything you need to know about contracts within the construction industry. Within its almost 500 pages and over six detailed chapters the author covers such issues as the formation of construction contracts… formality, incorporation by reference… and incomplete express agreement.
As you would expect, the longest chapters are on implied terms and interpretation of contracts. In the latter chapter there is, to cite only one example, a particularly intriguing reference to ‘business common sense and absurdity’. Designed to interpret what a contract really means, the assumption here is that words are (or should be) interpreted in a way in which a reasonable commercial person would construe them.’ A number of important cases are cited elaborating on this point, some warning that, like it or not, ‘judges are not always the most commercially minded… (or) commercially experienced of people’.
In essence, the approach taken in this particular volume is to indentify information that the construction lawyer or other interested party, would need in order to apply the principles of construction law to practical problems.
To this end, frequent reference is made to decided cases. The fifteen pages containing the Table of Cases lists all cases cited therein, cross referring them to the relevant pages in the text.
There is also a useful index at the back for further ease of use. The book therefore will be extremely useful to anyone involved in construction disputes, including arbitrators and mediators, as well as lawyers. The publication date is cited as at July 2012.
