Newsletter
Information for members
November 2005

Previous issue: October 2005 | Next issue: December 2005

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Programme

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.

Tuesday 1 November, 6.15pm
Joint SCL /TECBAR meeting
Speaker and Chairman: tba
Venue: National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London SW1 6.15pm

Tuesday 15 November, 6.15pm
“Novation after Blyth & Blyth”
Speaker: Scott McKinnell
Chairman: tba
Brunswick Lecture Theatre, Leeds Metropolitan Univ.
Organiser: jonathanhawkswell@scl.org.uk

Wednesday 30 November, 6pm
“NEC 3”
Speaker: Brian Eggleston
George Moore Building, Board Room M401, Glasgow Caledonian University, Cowcaddens Road, Glasgow G4
Organiser: lindypatterson@scl.org.uk

Tuesday 6 December, 6.15pm
Joint SCL /TECBAR meeting
“Liability of local authorities”
Speaker: Lord Justice Dyson
Venue and chairman to be announced

Two social dates for your 2006 diary

The Society's annual Brewery Lunch ( Chiswell Street, London ) will be on Friday, 17 th February. The 2006 Brewery lunch will be a special event, details of which will be announced shortly. All members will receive a copy of the booking form; please note that demand is likely to be unusually heavy for what will be a landmark event.

The AGM and Annual Dinner, will be on Wednesday, 17 th May 2006 at Middle Temple Hall, Middle Temple Lane, London. Members are reminded that the Society's annual dinner is the one event of the year reserved for members only, ie, members may not invite non-member guests. Further details and a booking form will be issued nearer the date.

SCL Hudson Prize 2005

Please don't forget that the closing date for entries for the SCL Hudson Prize is 31 st  December 2005. Entries are invited from members and non-members, so if you have any non-member colleagues who you think might be interested, then please let them know. The entry details can be downloaded from the website, or request a copy from admin. The winner of the first prize will receive a cheque for £1,500 and a case of champagne, and the winner of the second prize will receive a cheque for £750 and a case of wine. Other prizes may be awarded.

SCL Junior Members

If you are under 40 or new to the world of construction law, then you can register as a junior member.  The junior committee arranges site visits, conferences with King's College London and social events such as the summer Boat Trip on the Thames.

To register as a Junior Member, log in to the SCL website (www.scl.org.uk) in the usual way, choose the 'Members' link at the top, and then the 'Junior members' link on the left. You will find an explanation of Junior Membership, and a simple form to register. You do not need to enter your name/details, as these are already recognised by the website after you logged in; you only need to confirm your eligibility by giving either your date of birth, or stating that you are junior in your area of expertise.

Nicholas Gould, SCL's Vice chariman, is responsible for the Junior members and he can be emailed on by email

New papers available

With the Newsletter members will receive two papers, first Public Duties and Private Remedies: Floods or Floodgates? by Simon Brown QC and Kim Franklin, and secondly A Little of Time at Large: proof of a reasonable time to complete in the absence of a completion date, the paper that Keith Pickavance and Wendy MacLaughlin gave in London on 4 th October.  (E-members have already received the papers, which are also on the website.) 

The three Hudson prize papers will shortly be on the website: Adrian Baron's paper The battle between logical purity and commercial expedience: heralding limits to the 'twin agreement' fiction ; Hamish Lal's paper Commercial exploitation in construction contracts: the role of economic duress and unjust enrichment and Mathew Molloy's paper, Special relationships, home made wine, consenting adults and gap filling.

Robert Gaitskell's paper, Current trends in dispute resolution (together with one on using dispute boards under the ICC's Rules) will also be published shortly, as will the paper by Peter Aeberli Inquisitorial procedure in adjudication and arbitration.  

Members are reminded that if they wish to receive an email copy of web-only papers (ie those not printed in hard copy) as soon as they are put on the website, they may do so by registering at www.scl.org.uk Further search facilities have also been added recently, making it even easier to search SCL's extensive library (over 180 papers).

UK businesses and associations unite to tackle corruption

UK businesses and associations with interests in the domestic and international infrastructure, construction and engineering sectors have agreed a comprehensive Anti-Corruption Action Statement as part of a programme to promote industry-led actions which can help eliminate corruption.

The Action Statement has been developed and endorsed by the Anti-Corruption Forum, which comprises the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), British Consultants and Construction Bureau (BCCB), Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), Transparency International (UK) (TI(UK)), and representatives of the business community.

The Action Statement calls on all those with interests in the infrastructure, construction and engineering sectors to take effective and co-ordinated action to reduce corruption, on both a domestic and international basis, and on both the supply and demand sides. It identifies the various categories of participant in the sectors, including governments, project owners, banks, export credit agencies, companies providing the equipment and services for a project, business associations and professional institutions. It recommends preventive and enforcement actions which could be taken by those participants.

A copy of the Anti-Corruption Action Statement is available on the Ethics page of SCL's website.

Forensic Engineering Conference, ICE, November 2005

The ICE is organising a Third International Conference on Forensic Engineering in November 2005.  Further information is available at: www.forensicengineering2005.com

New Website Search Engine

A useful search facility has been added to the SCL website. In the right column of the homepage you will see 'Quick Search'. Enter your word(s) and choose which of three sections to search - 'About Us', SCL newsletters, and summaries of papers. We hope that this facility will make it easier for members to find what they are looking for on the site.

The website is constantly being improved.  If you have any questions, problems or suggestions, please contact our webmaster, Edward Peters, at webmaster@scl.org.uk

How to register on the website as a member

In order to get members' access to the website you must register online as a member. Registration is easy.

Go to the website homepage www.scl.org.uk click Member Registration (listed below the Member Login box on the right hand side of the homepage) and enter your details and a username and password of your own choosing. Your membership number is also asked for (if you don't know it, then admin can tell you).  

Thereafter, you can simply log onto the website using your username and password. When you log in you will see a navigation link to 'Members' which is where you can update your contact details, email subscriptions and data protection information – 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).

New Members

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

David Aldridge, Fetcham
Norman Benn, Harefield
Robert James Cowan Burns, Perth
Stacy Cahill, London
Kok-way Chan, Singapore, Singapore
Michael Culver, South Woodford
Nenad Curgus, Seattle, USA
Hannah Daeche, Leicester
Taner Dedezade, London
Richard Edwin, London
Clive Ellis, Mirfield
Hugh Foxcroft, Melbourne, Australia
Paul Greenwell, Walthamstow
Michelle Guthrie, London
Amin Habboub, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Madelaine Hanlon, Wythall
Catherine Herlihy, Sydney, Australia
Geoffrey Hill, Winchester
Fleur Hudson, Perth, Australia
Muhieddine Itani, Beirut, Lebanon
Alan Jackson, Bristol
Sonal Jogi, North Sydney, Australia
Kevin Magill, Grand Cayman, Jamaica
Zita Mansi, London
Nicholas McCarron Child, London
John Munton, London
Jubeenh Nazhat, London
Conrad Purcell, London
Huw Russell, London
Russell Scott, Doncaster
David Simons, Halesowen
David Tiernan, Enfield
Mario Virant, Salisbury Plain, Australia
Patrick Waterhouse, Altrincham
Catherine Welch, Bristol
Tim Welchew, London
Patricia White, Belfast
William Wood, Wallingford
Joanne Xuereb, Paddington, Australia
Anna Yan, Taipei, Taiwan

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