Newsletter
Information for members
January 2004

Previous issue: December 2003
Next issue: February 2004

Programme

Details of further proposed meetings can be found on this website.

Advance Notice: In association with King's College London, a conference on International Construction Law (provisional) will be held at the Strand Campus on 1st /2nd July. Further details will be announced during March 2004.

An SCL  Code of Ethical Conduct?

About 150 members and guests of the Society gathered in London on 2 nd December to hear His Honour Judge Anthony Thornton's thoughtful and stimulating paper Ethics and Construction Law: Where to start?   The paper will be printed and sent to all members early in the New Year, and will also (as usual) be available on the website.

Judge Thornton picks up on Professor John Uff's suggestion that the Society should draft a code of ethical conduct that defines ethical standards that all construction professionals should be expected to observe, and considers in some depth the key considerations that those formulating such a code would need to take into account.  A code is one of the options that the ethics subgroup will be considering, and this paper is an invaluable contribution.

The paper considers, in some detail, such matters as who should be covered by the code, what its objectives should be, and the fundamental questions that it should address.   Judge Thornton concludes that the proposal that the Society should draft a code is brave, pioneering and highly desirable - throwing down a real challenge!  

 For further information about SCL 's work on ethics, visit the ethics group's page

Subscriptions for 2004

Many of you have already renewed your subscription for 2004. Thank you.

A reminder to those of you who have not yet paid that if payment is made before the end of January, then you may deduct £5 from the renewal fee.

If you have mislaid the renewal of membership invoice sent to you with the last newsletter, then you can get a replacement copy from Jackie Morris at admin.

Membership - new on-line database and data protection issues

Here is a reminder of the notice given in the last newsletter.

As most of you will know we publish a hard copy annual Directory of members every year, usually during the summer. We would now like to extend this to an on-line version.

We have never had complaints from anyone about being in the hard copy Directory but in order to satisfy the data protection act we feel we should formally check with you. However to make this as easy as possible we are just asking you to tick the box on the renewal form if you no longer wish to be included. In other words the default position will remain that your name will be published in the hard copy directory next summer unless you tell us otherwise.

We are also now looking to publish an on-line version of the same Directory. Again we see that this will be something that is for members benefit only and at this stage our plan will be to make it available to members only through a restricted part of the website. When renewing your membership you will be asked to confirm that you are prepared for your contact details to be included in an on-line database at the SCL website. Here we see the default position is that we will not include your details in the on-line directory unless you specifically request us to do so.

Lunch at the Brewery

The Society's Lunch at the Brewery will be held on Friday, 27 th February. The speaker this year will be Her Honour Judge Frances Kirkham.

The ticket price is just £45 and the advice is to buy your tickets as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. A larger room means we can accommodate more people this year but the tickets are selling very quickly.

You can make your booking on the website, or else send the booking form with payment cheque to Jackie Morris at the admin office. If you have mislaid the booking form sent to you last month, then copies are available either from the website or by email from the admin office.

CIC

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has published a third edition of its Model Adjudication Procedure.  Copies can be obtained from Diwam Patel at CIC, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT, telephone 020 7399 7405 dpatel@cic.org.uk price £10, £11 inc p&p  (payment can be made by cheque or credit card).  A note setting out the differences between the three editions can be found at www.cic.org.uk/liability The main changes in this edition are the addition of an express 'slip rule' (new paragraph 28) and the deletion of the adjudicator's lien on fees.

SCL Diary of Events

Enclosed with this newsletter is your copy of the SCL Spring/Summer Diary of Events. If you would like to give copies of the Diary to your non-member friends or colleagues, then spare copies are available from the admin office.

Contributions invited from Members

What construction law related topic would you like to see presented as a talk? Please email your suggestions to Jackie Morris on admin@scl.org.uk and we will do our best to organise a talk in your area.

You are also invited to contribute to the newsletter. If you have an item related to construction law that you feel would be of interest to others, then please email text to Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk . A member of Council will thereafter decide whether to include the item in the next newsletter. Please note that we do not accept advertisements or items of a commercial nature.

Grants

Every year SCL awards grants to educational establishments. We have previously given grants of over £1,000 each to King's College London and to Glasgow Caledonian, Strathclyde and Wolverhampton universities for purchase of books and journals and for help towards the setting up of web facilities.

The award of grants is shortly to be reviewed again. If you know of a likely recipient, please encourage them to apply, either directly to Council Member David Risbridger on davidrisbridger@scl.org.uk or through the SCL website.

Member benefits

Members are reminded that they may use the Construction Law library at King's College, London . However, please contact Sue Hart on 020 7848 2643 or susan.hart@kcl.ac.uk beforehand to check availability.

In addition, the website contains a list of discounts that have been negotiated on behalf of members. The list includes discounts on subscriptions to journals and on conferences, courses and books.

SCL Website

SCL Newsletter on line: A reminder that past copies of the newsletter are available at the website. You can also have a copy of the newsletter emailed to you every month.

For those members new to the Society and/or to the www, our website 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 is where you will find a list of over 100 titles of past papers, quite a few of which are available as free downloadable files. In addition, the website has links to more than 50 other sites considered to be of interest to members. If you think something is missing which should be there (so long as it is not a commercial site) then the facility now exists for you to create a link to the website (links will be monitored by the publications editor, Frances Paterson).