Newsletter
Information for members
May 2004

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Wednesday, 12th May at 6.30pm

AGM and Annual Dinner at Middle Temple Hall, London

We are delighted to announce that Lord Justice May, appeal court judge and the most senior construction judge, will be attending the dinner.

For those members who have not already done so, there is still time to book your place at the annual dinner – but please hurry – places are being taken up quickly!

A booking form can be downloaded, or you can book online.

SCL Election

A reminder to those of you who have not already done so that it is now time to vote for new members of Council. We have 5 vacancies and 8 highly qualified and able candidates. It is a sign of a healthy society that we have such good competition for places on Council.

The candidates are: David Anderson, Christopher Dering, Shona Frame, Brian Gayton, Nicholas Gould, Keith Kirkwood, Lindy Patterson, and Sarah Shemmings.

As usual it will be possible to vote at the AGM in London on the 12th May after listening to a brief presentation from each of the candidates. Those not be able to attend the AGM can vote on our website or by post or fax. Ballot forms and a document containing the candidates’ election statements have already been distributed to all members. If you did not receive these, Jackie Morris at admin can supply replacement copies, or you can get them from the website.

If you plan to vote in advance of the AGM then we would encourage you to vote on our website as that reduces the administrative burden.

Meetings

Unless marked otherwise, the following meetings are free to members and guests.

Location maps are now always available on the website.

All are welcome but for those meetings where the organiser's telephone or email is given, it would be helpful if you could please let them know of your intention to attend .

Programme

Tuesday, 4th May, 6.15pm
Philip Britton will present his SCL Hudson prize-winning paper “The architect, the banker, his wife and the adjudicator: unfair contract terms and construction”
Refreshments will be served after this meeting.
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place , London SW1

Thursday, 6th May, 6.00pm
“Novation after Blyth and Blyth”
Speaker: Scott McKinnell
Chairman: Simon Goss
Venue: The Brunel Room, The Hawthorns, Bristol BS8
Organiser: simongoss@scl.org.uk

Tuesday, 18th May, 6.00pm
“An update on arbitration cases”
Speaker: Rowan Planterose
Chairman: Barbara Colledge
Venue: Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan University
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Tuesday, 18th May, 6.00pm
“Partnering Parallels: Background and Benefits”
Speaker: David Evans
Chairman: tba
Venue: DLA , Fountain Precinct, Balm Green, Sheffield S1

Tuesday, 8th June, 6.15pm
“Putting the Protocol into Practice – the PFE Change Management Supplements. Is it what the industry wants?”
Speakers to include: Julian Critchlow, Nicholas Gould and Keith Pickavance
Chairman: Richard Bayfield
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place , London SW1

Tuesday, 8th June, 6.00pm
“Professional liability and construction professionals”
Speaker: Andrew Noble
Chairman: Andrew MacCuish
Venue: Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan University
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Thursday, 10th June, 6.00pm
(Topic to be announced)
Speaker: Andrew Bartlett QC
Chairman: tba
Venue: Room 2, Faculty of Law, University of Birmingham
Organiser: arulselvaratnam@scl.org.uk

Tuesday, 15th June, 6.00pm
“Insights from beyond Construction – Collaboration – the Honda experience”
Speakers: Richard Bayfield and Paul Roberts
Chairman: tba
Venue: Said Business School , Oxford
Organiser: richardwade@scl.org.uk

Thursday, 1st July, 6.15pm
Joint SCL /SCA meeting
A debate with an international perspective. “What’s wrong with arbitration?”
Speakers: Professor John Uff QC , Harold Crowter and John Tackaberry QC
(all to be confirmed & chairman to be announced)
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place , London SW1

Advance Notice: In association with King’s College London, a conference on Key Construction Risks and Dispute Resolution: An International Perspective will be held at the Strand Campus on 1 st/2 nd July. Further details will be announced very shortly

SCL Hong Kong

Tuesday, 11th May, 6.00pm for 6.30pm
Teresa Cheng SC
Seminar on the Provisional Construction Industry Co-ordination Board
Members – HK$50
Non-members – HK$100 (all rates include refreshments)
Venue: Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, 38/F
Two Exchange Square , 8 Connaught Place , HK

May-June
(date and venue to be announced)
Mr John Dorter – Address to SCLHK Annual General Meeting

Contact Susan Ho on susan.ho@echarris.com for further details of SCL Hong Kong events.

Anti-Corruption Measures in the Chinese Construction Sector

A two day anti-corruption symposium for the construction sector in China was held at Tsinghua University , Beijing in April 2004. It was jointly organised by Tsinghua University , Transparency International, and the ICC. It was attended by over 100 senior Chinese officials. The symposium was reported on in the “China Daily” newspaper and on a major national television channel.

The Chinese Government regards the prevention of corruption in the construction sector as a matter of the highest priority. In particular, the aim of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Organising Committee is to make the US$16 billion construction project the most corruption-free Olympic project ever.

For further information on the symposium, and on anti-corruption measures in China , contact neill.stansbury@transparency.org.uk

Ethics Group - second meeting

A second meeting of the whole group was held on Monday 26 th April and agreement was reached on the way forward.  Further details will be emailed to all those in the group shortly, and further information will be put on the website and in the newsletter. A report to Council is now being drafted.

Sir Michael Latham’s review of the Construction Act

We have been in touch with Sir Michael regarding the review of the Construction Act. Sir Michael responded as follows. “I will be very keen to receive thoughts from the Society of Construction Law and I will ask the DTI officials who are servicing the committee to be in touch with you.”

Papers

A copy of Philip Britton's prize winning Hudson paper “ The architect, the banker, his wife and the adjudicator: unfair contract terms and construction” will be sent out to all members on5 th May.

The commended papers: “Joint and Several Liability in the Construction Industry: Is it Time for (Proportionate) Law Reform in the UK ?” by Adrian Baron, “Parallel Partnering: Background and Benefits” by David Evans and “Completion is the key to liquidated damages. But what is completion? And what should it be?” by John Nestor have been, or will be, put on the website. 

Kenneth Severn

It is with regret that we have to announce the death of Kenneth Severn, one of the founder members of the Society. Our sincere condolences go to his wife and family.

A full obituary will appear in the next issue of the newsletter.

President’s Medal 2004

You may remember that Professor John Uff QC was the recipient of the first ever President’s Medal in October 2000 and, in 2002, the second medal was awarded to Professor Ian Duncan Wallace QC. Members are now invited to submit their nominations for this year’s award.

If you would like to nominate a candidate or candidates, please email your suggestion(s) to Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk no later than Monday, 6th September. The candidate need not be a member of SCL but should clearly have made a significant contribution to furthering the Society’s aim of promoting the study and understanding of construction law amongst all those involved in the construction industry.

The winner(s) will be decided by the President, together with the officers of SCL and the recipient(s) will then receive a special invitation to attend the President’s Reception on 18 th October 2004 .

The Regions

As you all know Charlotte Blake is undertaking a review of the working and relationship of the regions and London branches of the society. Naturally she is in direct contact with the relevant organisers. However, there maybe those who are not so involved who have pertinent and useful views or comments to make and she would be very pleased to hear from you. Please contact her with your views on charlotteblake@scl.org.uk

Resolving Disputes “Professionally” or “Commercially” – developments in ICE Dispute Resolution

The latest developments in ICE Dispute Resolution will be introduced at a half-day seminar at the Institution of Civil Engineers on Monday 5th July 2004 at 1.30pm, including

• the newly revised Clause 66
• NEC 3 rd Edition and the HGCR Act
• the ICE Dispute Resolution Board Procedure.

Speakers include Simon Delves, Tony Bingham, Geoffrey Hawker, Frances Forward and Gwyn Owen. A reception courtesy of Shadbolts and Co will follow the presentations and discussion.

Admission is free but it will be necessary reserve a place with the ICE. To do this or to request further information please contact John Hawkins on 020 7665 2217 or John.Hawkins@ice.org.uk

Email Communication

We are still experiencing a large number of emails being returned undelivered. If you are not receiving email notifications from SCL – and want to do so – please email admin with your correct email address.

SCL Website

If you have not yet done so, take a look at the new website which has been completely redesigned to make it easier to use. Members can now log in from the homepage, and stay logged in throughout the site until they log out. When you log in you will see a new navigation link to 'Members' which is where you can update your contact details, email subscriptions and data protection info - as well as search for information about other SCL members who have agreed for their data to be accessible to other members on the website (currently over 500 members). In due course some new facilities will be added for members.

Other site enhancements include:

• Easier site navigation, more sections and links from the new left-navigation on all pages except the home page.
• A News page and a separate Newsletters list page.
• Forthcoming events can now be filtered by city.
• A new 'ethics' section of the site.

If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, please contact our webmaster, Edward Peters, at Webmaster

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.

New members

Finally, we are pleased to welcome the following new members who joined the Society in April:

Bernard Ashford, Devon
Keith Roberts, Staffordshire
Matthew Bastone, Surrey
Philip Garlick, Northampton
Duncan Glaholt, Ontario, Canada
Kirstin Warley, London
Richard Davies, London
Karen Gough, Kent
Stephen Gerrard, Cheshire
Diane Donnelly, Nelson , New Zealand
Richard Thomas, Cheshire
Christopher O’Carroll, Birmingham
Andrew Wickham, Birmingham
Robert Richards, Nottingham
David Williams, Coventry
Gerry McCaffrey, Renfrew , Scotland
Simon Fyfe, West Sussex
Graham Harrison, Paisley , Scotland
Paul Woods, London
Justin Mendelle, London
Angus Dawson, London
Andrew Mather, London
Christopher Welch, Lancashire
Simon Halliwell, London
Gemma Hunter, London
Christopher Paul, London

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