NAEL G BUNNI

B Sc, M Sc, Ph D, C Eng, FICE, FIEI, FI Struct E, FCI Arb, FIAE, R Cons EI. Chartered Engineer, Conciliator and Registered Chartered Arbitrator Past President CI Arb Visiting Professor in Construction Law and Contract Administration at Trinity College Dublin.

1. INTRODUCTION

• Complexity.
• Highly technical with issues of varying expertise, requiring advanced methods of analysis and sophisticated methods of decision making.
• Involves large sums of money.
• A period of construction that spans over a number of years with a repeated happening of the four seasons.
• Viewed comparatively against other types of contract, the wording of a construction contract is more extensive, as it has to provide for and deal with detailed conditions in respect of the risks that might eventuate during the construction period and beyond.
• Capable of producing a multiplicity of disputes that: (a) take a long time to resolve; (b) need the examination of many more documents than other types of dispute; and (c) involve all three aspects of fact, law and quantum, where:

• the facts generally relate to events or circumstances that occur on, or off, the site of the project and in many cases involve highly specialised technical issues;

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