Newsletter
Information for members
January 2002

Previous issue: November 2001
Next issue: February 2002

Programme

A Date for the Diary! President's Reception 2002

The President's Reception will be held on the evening of 16th October 2002 at Ironmonger's Hall, Shaftesbury Place, Barbican, London EC2Y 8AA. Details to follow.

Renewal of Membership Invoice for 2002

The renewal of membership invoices will be posted within the next week.

The subscription fee for 2002 remains unchanged at £75 and, to make it easier to renew your membership, you can now pay by sterling cheque, by Debit Card (either directly through the website or by giving your details to Jackie Morris at the Admin office) or by Standing Order through your own bank. Payment information is printed on the invoice but if you have any problems or queries please contact Jackie.

Prompt payment of your renewal invoice will be greatly appreciated, since it helps us to keep down unnecessary administration costs.

NB: Please note that you may now renew your membership on-line.

Use by Outside Organisations of Data Held by Us About You

For some years the Society has allowed carefully selected external organisations with an interest in construction (like publishers or conference providers) to have access to our database of names and addresses of existing members, in return for a fee paid to the Society. In recent years this has provided an income of around £1,500.00 per annum to the Society.

Since this possibility was not explained to you when you last gave us personal data about yourself, best practice and data protection law together mean that you must now have an opportunity to confirm agreement to this arrangement.

Printed on the back of your renewal of membership, therefore, is a form which you are requested to mark and return to the Admin office if you DO wish to continue to receive mailings from external organisations selected by the Society. You can also do this on line via the website.

We would emphasise that the Chairman of SCL vets every request to purchase the mailing list and permission is only given when the information is thought to be of interest to members. It is by no means automatic!

Thank you in advance for your help.

New Year's Honour

Professor John Uff QC, whom the SCL honoured with its first President's Silver Medal in 2000, was awarded a CBE for services to rail safety in the 2002 New Year's Honours. He chaired the Southall Rail Accident Inquiry and co-chaired (with Lord Cullen) the Joint Inquiry into Train Protection Systems which came out of the Ladbroke Grove accident. He remains Nash Professor of Engineering Law in the Centre of Construction Law at King's College London, as well as practising from Keating Chambers.

Lunch at the Brewery

Enclosed with this newsletter is a flier giving details of this year's lunch at the Brewery on 1st March at which the speaker will be Zara Lamont OBE, Chief Executive of the Confederation of Construction Clients. Tickets for this event usually sell quickly so, if you want to be sure of getting a place, please complete and return the booking slip on the flier as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can book your place on the website.

Commercial Court Consultation Paper

The Society has set up a small sub-committee to coordinate the Society's response to the Commercial Court Consultation Paper. The response has to be finalised and submitted by the end of February. If you would like to join this sub-committee, please contact Victoria Russell on 020 7956 9354 or email vrussell@fenwickelliott.co.uk

Adjudication Society - recent case notes

As some of you may know, Nicholas Gould is the case notes editor for the Adjudication Society. The Society meets occasionally and issues a monthly newsletter containing material on adjudication as well as notes on recent cases dealing with adjudication. Should you have access to any topical case transcripts then please forward them to Nicholas who will be pleased to consider summarising them for publication. Credit is given to the person supplying any that are published. He can be contacted by email at ngould@forsters.co.uk

European Society of Construction Law Conference

In conjunction with the Centre of Construction Law at King's College, the ESCL Conference 2002 will be held at King's College, London on Friday 12 July 2002; it is hoped that this will be a joint event between ESCL, SCL, King's College and the Society of Construction Arbitrators. There is also a possibility of participation in the conference by a visiting group of construction lawyers from the United States.

Papers Published in 2001

For information, an Index of the 21 papers that were published by the Society in 2001 is available.

SCL Draft EOT Protocol - Consultation Period

Many of you will no doubt be aware that last month the Society launched the delay protocol as a consultation document. A copy of the Protocol was also placed on a specially created SCL website. So far over 2000 copies have been issued in hard copy form or else downloaded from the web site: http://www.eotprotocol.com/

The website also includes copies of a summary of the document, a press section and a bulletin board for your feedback and comments on the document. Remember the consultation period closes on the 31st January so please prepare your comments now and post them on the bulletin board. The bulletin board uses the same user name and password - "egan". All comments on the Bulletin board will be reviewed by the consultation group prior to publication of the final document.

It is possible to download the Protocol from the website without charge (in order to gain the free download you will need to give the same user name and password - "egan"). For those of you whose internet systems are not as fast as you would like, you may instead prefer to purchase a hard copy for £10.00 including postage and packing. You can order a copy on line at the eotprotocol website (just click on "buy").

SCL Draft EOT Protocol - Events

It has recently come to the Society's attention that some commercial organisations are running seminars and conferences on, or including, the draft EOT Protocol. Members of the Society should be aware that these are not official Society events. The Society itself will be organising talks for members and their guests on the EOT Protocol once the consultation period has concluded and the Protocol is in final form.

The Society, in its role as an independent and neutral Society actively encourages writing, discussion and events (ie, seminars and courses) on the Protocol. However, the copyright of this document remains with the Society of Construction Law. If you wish to use the Protocol at an event you may be planning, could you please email webmaster@scl.org.uk giving full details of your intentions.

If you are organising an event, whether academic or commercial, the Society requests that the publicity material makes it quite clear that it is not an SCL event as such but that it utilizes SCL material.

If you are making copies of the protocol then the Society asks that it be made clear that the protocol is published by the Society of Construction Law in the UK, that the protocol is reproduced with the Society's permission and that further information about the Society's activities are available on the Society's website (www.scl.org.uk).

Working with China's Construction Industry:
Seminar on Wednesday 6th February 2002

The Construction Industry Council and the Building Research and Information journal are hosting a seminar entitled "Working with China's Construction Industry" from 4pm to 7pm on Wednesday 6th February 2002 at the Institution of Civil Engineers, 1 Great George Street, London SW1.

The seminar, which is chaired by Tony Baldry MP, deputy chair of the All Party China Committee, is aimed at construction consultants and companies in the UK interested in the opportunities of working in China. The speakers will discuss the practical challenges of/lessons from foreign collaboration with China's construction industry and emphasise what capabilities the Chinese seek from foreign involvement.

Speakers include representatives from the Ministry of Construction in China, Chongqing University, the China-Britain Business Council, UMIST, the CIOB, Ove Arup and others.

The cost of attending the seminar is £50 plus VAT; for further information and/or to reserve a place, please contact Micky Klippel-Arden at the Construction Industry Council by email at mklippel arden@cic.org.uk or by telephone on 020 7637-8692

Pre Event for the World Summit for Sustainable Development
(The Earth Summit 2002)

The Construction Industry Council's Sustainable Development Committee is organising a one-day event in preparation for the world Summit for Sustainable Development in September 2002.

The event, which is being organised in conjunction with the RICS Foundation, is due to be held on Tuesday 14th May 2002 at the RICS. The aim is to use this event as the springboard to the UK construction industry's contribution to the Earth Summit and CIC welcomes suggestions and ideas, both for the format of the day and of any contributions that members may wish to make at the Earth Summit.

The aim of the event is to put forward a number of projects that demonstrate best practice in terms of sustainability to an audience of 100-150 Industry representatives. CIC cordially invites all members to put forward projects or case studies from their sector of the industry to be represented at the event.

For information please contact Micky Klippel-Arden by email at mklippel-arden@cic.org.uk

SCL Web Site: http://www.scl.org.uk

As mentioned above you are now able to renew your membership on line. Go to the home page and follow the "membership renewal" link under "what's new". You can also purchase hard copies of "back papers" on line via the "papers" section of the website, alternatively you can download a copy of the most recent papers before they are printed in hard copy.

For those new to the Society and/or to the WWW our web site is a constant source of new information. Items which have arrived too late to be published in a Newsletter, or details of meetings which have been arranged after the seasonal Diary has gone to print, will be posted on the website. It contains details of our future programme and contact details for university book grants.

There are currently four pages of photographs taken at Mr Justice Forbes' talk on 4th December. If you attended, take a look!

New Members

A recent check has shown a steady growth in membership. In early 1998 we had fewer than 800 members but that by the end of that year the figure had risen to 886. At the end of 1999 the total was 949 members, by December 2000 there were 1,035 members and by December 2001, 1176 members.

The Administration office receives almost daily calls or emails asking for details of membership, all of which is particularly pleasing since we have never advertised but have relied upon word of mouth to spread news of the Society and its aims. Many new members are joining on-line.

We are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Society during November and December 2001:

Regional Coordinators

Membership/Administration
67 Newbury Street
Wantage, Oxon., OX12 8DJ
Tel: 01235 770606
Fax: 01235 770580
Email