Newsletter
Information for members
December 2006

Previous issue: November 2006 | Next issue: January 2007

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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, 5th December 6.15pm
Joint Tecbar/SCL meeting (Talk to be followed by free drinks)
Speaker: The Hon. Mr Justice Rupert Jackson
Chairman: The Right Honourable Lord Justice May
Venue: National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, London SW1A\
SCL Chairman Nicholas Gould will welcome the speaker and TecBar to the joint event

Tuesday, 23 January 6.15pm
“A guide to piling and the problems that may occur”
Speaker: Martyn Stroud
Chairman: Martin Green
Venue: Room 118, Northern Terrace, Queens Square Court, Leeds
Organiser: Jonathan Hawkswell

Thursday, 25 January
Joint Society of Construction Law/Adjudication Society Seminar
“Mediation v Adjudication v Arbitration v Litigation”
Speakers: The panel members will each be advocating a form of dispute resolution.
Stephen Clarke: Client
Steve Homer: Arbitration
Peter O'Brien: Mediation
Mark Wheeler: Adjudication
Richard Flowerdew: Litigation
Venue: TLT Solicitors, One Redcliff Street, Bristol BS1 6TP
5:30 - 5:45 Coffee and Registration
5:45 - 6:45 The debate
6:45 - 7:00 Questions and Answers
7:00 - 7:30 Wine and canapés
Organiser: Simon Goss

Tuesday, 30 January 6.15pm
“Dispute Resolution Update”
Speakers: Paul Darling QC and Nicholas Gould
Venue (in the Sheffield/Derby/Nottingham region) to be announced
Organiser: Jocelyn Taylor

Friday, 16 February 12.30pm
The Society's Annual Lunch at the Brewery
See separate flyer/booking form attached to this newsletter
Speaker: Alan Chambers MBE
Venue: The Brewery, 52 Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4SD

Pay Subscriptions on-line

During December all full members will receive an invoice inviting Renewal of Membership for 2007 (overseas e-members will receive an emailed invitation to renew).

For the fourth year running, the full membership subscription has been held at £100, or £95 if payment is received before 31 January 2007. Please note that subscriptions can be paid on-line and that a receipt form is generated for each transaction. Just go to www.scl.org.uk and proceed to the on-line shop. Payment by Debit Card particularly is of value to SCL in helping to reduce our administrative costs and maintain the low subscription rate. 

Ronan Champion
SCL Treasurer

The timetable for subscriptions payments

The Society continues to grow and so there is an increased need to keep administrative costs to a minimum. Council has therefore decided to introduce a strict timetable for reminding those members who forget to pay their subscriptions. The Constitution of the Society states that all subscription fees should be paid by the end of March and so the 2007 timetable for reminding members will be as follows:

1. Mid December: Invoices will be posted to full members (and emails sent to overseas e-members).
2. Early January: An email will be sent to all unrenewed members reminding of 31 January discount.
3. Late January: A second email reminder to unrenewed members of 31 January discount.

Payments we receive from 1 February onwards must be paid at the full rate of £100.

4. Mid February: Email to all unrenewed members reminding of the need to pay by 31 March.
5. Mid March: A second email reminder to all unrenewed members of the need to pay by 31 March.
6. 24 March: Final notification that membership will cease if payment is not received by 31 March.
7. 1 April: All unpaid members will be lapsed. If lapsed members subsequently wish to re-join the Society, they will be treated as new members.

Please note : It is extremely important that the contact details we have for you on the database are up to date so that the reminders go to the correct email address. You can update your own contact details at any time, or email and ask admin to do it for you.

New Co-ordinator for the Newcastle Region

Sadly, Denis Wiles has had to resign as the Coordinator for the Newcastle region because of serious health problems. Our good wishes go to him. Simon Lewis has therefore kindly agreed to take over as the new Co-ordinator and we are delighted to welcome him to the role. Meetings early in the new year are already being planned and Simon can be contacted on 0191 279 9552 or by email

New ‘Four Counties' Region

We are pleased to announce the formation of a new SCL region. It will cover Leicester, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northampton and will therefore be known as the Four Counties region. A warm welcome to Michael Gerard and to Judith Bird who have agreed to become joint Regional Co-ordinators. Michael can be contacted on 01858 440 984 or by email and Judith can be contact on 01908 350 213 or by email

Society of Construction Law International Conference

The Singapore Society of Construction Law hosted the first ever Society of Construction Law International Conference in Singapore between 15th and 17th October 2006. The event was sponsored by the Societies of Construction Law from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, UAE, and the UK.

The Singapore SCL must be congratulated on their organisation of this ambitious Conference which ran extremely smoothly and efficiently. The whole event was judged by those there to have been a huge success.

This was the first chance for the various Societies from around the world to gather together in one place to meet, network and keep abreast of international developments in the area of construction law. There were delegates from over 17 countries worldwide with a total of 25 papers presented over the two-day period.

The conference opened with an excellent keynote address by Chao Hick Tin, the Attorney-General of Singapore, followed by a comprehensive examination of the application of FIDIC Contracts, highlights of construction law in the Middle East, India and China and then a close look at the oil and gas industry, professional negligence and insurance challenges within the construction industry. It was wrapped up with a review of some “Mega Projects” around the world.

All the papers will eventually be available to UK SCL members via the Singapore SCL website.

UK SCL wins bid for 2008 SCL International Conference

In scenes reminiscent of the UK's lobbying for the Olympics in Singapore the previous year, your Chairman and his team fought off strong competition from around the world to win the overall approval of SCLs to stage the 2008 SCL International Conference in London. The event will be staged in late September / early October 2008 and work has already commenced to enable us to match the efficiency and success of the Singapore team.

Global interest in SCL grows

There has been an increasing interest expressed from around the world in replicating the success of the SCL. The European Society and the UK Society have now been effective for many years. Outside Europe societies are established in Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, New Zealand and Malaysia. Significant interest has now been expressed by Australia, China, India, USA and South Africa with new enquiries being received on a regular basis. Your international committee hopes to work in these areas to assist the growth of SCLs around the globe.

Federation of Societies of Construction Law

With so many Societies springing up, it was agreed in Singapore that there is a need to have an overall organisation to ensure that the fundamental and core principles of the SCLs are replicated around the world. With this in mind it was agreed that we would establish a Federation of SCLs which would co-ordinate the expansion of SCLs, and act as a conduit for the exchange of information and ideas on a worldwide basis. The UK SCL along with our sister SCLs will take an active role in the establishment and promotion of the Federation.

Keith Kirkwood
Chair of UK SCL International Working Party

SCL Hudson Prize 2006

Council of the Society of Construction Law announce the 2006 SCL Hudson Prize competition, and invite entrants from all with an interest in construction law and an idea which they wish to share. The length of essay is a maximum of 5,000 words and the judging panel places emphasis upon originality of thought and approach.

Eligible subjects can be drawn from any part of construction law widely defined, including (but not restricted to) construction and engineering contracts, contract administration, claims, arbitration and dispute resolution, construction litigation, the law of torts, company law, property law, taxation (although this must be related to construction) and any other aspect of law or procedure relevant to the construction industry. First prize is £1,500, second prize is £750. Entrants can also be highly commended or commended. All who are awarded prizes or commendations receive a year's free membership of the Society.

Philip Britton of King's College has enjoyed considerable success in recent years in the competition but has indicated that he is leaving the field open this time round. The Society hopes that a strong field will compete for the right to succeed this distinguished past winner. Other past winners have included members of almost all the disciplines relating to construction law including barristers, solicitors (including a trainee), quantity surveyors, engineers, academics, architects, and several hybrids qualified in more than one discipline.

In response to a specific enquiry, it has been decided that entries will be accepted from two named joint authors. It should be noted that this does not extend to more than two authors and a submission by a team or department would not be acceptable under any circumstances.

Further details of the competition, the closing date for which is 5 th January 2007, can be obtained from the website. Any queries can be referred to me via Jackie Morris in the first instance. Good luck to all entrants.

Anthony Lavers
Chair of the Judging Panel

Award to Past SCL Chairman

Congratulations are due to Professor Anthony Lavers, Chair of the SCL Hudson Prize judging committee and immediate past Chairman of SCL, who has been awarded the degree of DLitt by the University of Portsmouth for published work of high distinction.

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 annual summer Boat Trip on the Thames. A site visit is planned early in 2007 – full details will be circulated in due course..

To register as a Junior Member, log in to the SCL website (www.scl.org.uk) using your username and password. Click on ‘Members' and then 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 Chairman, is responsible for the Junior members and he can be emailed

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. To register, go to the website homepage www.scl.org.uk click Member Registration 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). That's all there is to it.

Thereafter, you simply log onto the website using your username and password to get free access to the list of published papers, access your own contact details, or search for the contact details of other SCL members who have agreed for their data to be accessible to other members on the website – the total of those who have given permission is now nearly 1,000 members.

New Members

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

Elissa Bower, London
Paul Brazier, Bracknell
Luc Cleophas, Ulestraten, Netherlands
Matthew Cocklin, London
Louise Elmes, London
Nadine Emsley, London
Martin Ewen, London
Mohammad Farooq, Slough
Jennifer Galatas, London
Michael Gaughan, Calgary, Canada
Emma Grew, Bristol
Scott Hewlett, Sandton, South Africa
Aaron Hudson-Tyreman, London
Adam James, Vancouver, Canada
Ben Keenan, London
John Lawrie, Allerød, Denmark
Andrew Lee, Edinburgh
Paul Lomas-Clarke, Weybridge
Bernadette Manning, Derry
Benjamin Mellors, Surrey
Neil Mercer, Plymouth
Nihal Perera, Dubai, UAE
Andrew Raper, Leicester
Catrin Rees, London
Erskine Rozario, Nedenes, Oman
Harman Sandhu, Brussels
Andy Saul, Sandy, Bedfordshire
John Scanlon, Romford, Essex
Roberta Vella, London
Peter Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne

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