Newsletter
Information for members
February 2002

Previous issue: January 2002
Next issue: March 2002

Programme

A reminder that the general evening meetings are free of charge to members and guests and that no booking is necessary

Annual Lecture

Members of the Society of Construction Law are invited to attend the Annual Lecture of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators, which this year will be given by John Tackaberry QC and will take place at 6pm on Thursday, 7th March 2002. The title of the Lecture will be:

"Flexing the Knotted Oak - English Arbitration's Task and Opportunity in the First Decade of the New Century"

The venue for the Lecture will be Room 2C, King's College, Strand Campus, London WC2.

Further information about this event may be obtained by sending an e-mail to:
WcoArbitrators@aol.com or vrussell@fenwickelliott.co.uk

SCL Hudson Prize 2001

We are pleased to announce that Adrian Baron, a senior associate with Deacons, has been awarded first prize for his essay entitled "Damages in the shadow of a penalty clause - tripping over policy in the search for logic and legal principle".

Joint second prizes have been awarded to Hamish Lal, a solicitor with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, for his essay entitled "Extensions of time: The conflict between the 'prevention principle' and notice requirements as a condition precedent" and to Ben Ring, a solicitor with Linklaters & Alliance, for his essay entitled "Separability - a tale of two agreements".

Adrian, who was previously awarded a 'highly commended' for his entry in SCL's Millennium Hudson prize competition, is based in Brisbane, Australia and it is hoped that he will be able to travel to London to present his winning paper at the National Liberal Club on 9th April.

Congratulations to the winners and our thanks go to all the other entrants.

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.

SCL Book Grants

In January, the Society awarded a grant of £1004 to Glasgow Caledonian University to purchase construction law books. Jim Pragnell, the member of Council responsible, has also written to past recipients to encourage them to submit applications for further grants. If you know of a likely recipient, please encourage them to apply, either in writing to Jim Pragnell or through the SCL website.

SCL Discount List

This list is currently being updated and a copy of it will soon be sent to all members.

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.

SCL Draft EOT Protocol - Consultation Period ends 28th February

The Society launched the delay protocol as a consultation document just over two months ago and so far over 4000 copies have been issued in hard copy form or else downloaded from the web site: http://www.eotprotocol.com/

Already the SCL drafting group has received and reviewed well over 100 submissions from both individuals and organisations. It is the intention of the drafting group to review every submission and to produce a response paper explaining how your comments have been taken into account whilst preparing the final document. Please therefore send us your comments by the 28th February. It makes the distribution of comments easier if we have them in electronic format, so we ask you to email them to: Webmaster

Alternatively why not take part in the debate on the bulletin board at the web site (http://www.eotprotocol.com/)? The bulletin board uses the same user name and password - "egan". Remember that all comments on the Bulletin board will be reviewed by the consultation group prior to publication of the final document.

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

Papers Published in 2001

Two new papers can be found on SCL's website

Firstly, the paper that John Marrin QC gave to the Society's meeting in London on 5th February: 'Concurrent Delay'. Hard copies will be sent to all members shortly - it will be the 100th paper published by the Society.

Secondly, a paper by Bridget Bird and Noy Trounson, given to a meeting in Nottingham last year: 'Corporate Killing - A New Offence'.

Do not forget that the website now includes a search facility and that published papers can be purchased online.

Renewal of 2002 Membership

The Renewal of Membership invoices were despatched at the end of January and we have already received payment from many members. Thank you. Prompt payment is greatly appreciated, since it helps us to keep down unnecessary administration costs. For those of you who have not yet paid, a reminder that this year you can pay either by sterling cheque or by Debit card via the website. Simply go to the home page and follow the "membership renewal" link under "what's new".

SCL Web Site: www.scl.org.uk

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.

As mentioned above, you can also purchase hard copies of past 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.

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

New Members

We are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Society during January 2002:

The number of members continues to grow. So far, seventeen new members have joined in February.

Regional Coordinators

Are you moving? Will your contact details change? Do we have your email address? Please tell Membership Administration so that we can keep our records up to date.

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