i-law

International Construction Law Review

CORRESPONDENTS’ REPORTS: ENGLAND AND WALES

JENNIFER BARRETT, ANN LEVIN AND MARTIN BRIDGEWATER

Herbert Smith, London

THE ENGINEER HAS LEFT THE BUILDING: THE NEW ICE APPROACH TO DISPUTE RESOLUTION

Summary

This article examines the ICE’s recent decision to dispense with the engineer’s decision as part of its clause 66 dispute resolution procedure in favour of adjudication, and contrasts this approach with the trend for using dispute boards favoured by FIDIC and the ICC.

Introduction

The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)1 has recently updated the dispute resolution procedures in its long-established Conditions of Contract. The ICE recommends that the new provisions be incorporated into all contracts let after 1 July 2004.
As the ICE’s website press release explains, the revised family of contracts aims to help opposing parties within the construction industry settle their contractual differences before embarking on costly dispute resolution proceedings.2 To this end, the contractual dispute resolution procedure for ICE Conditions of Contract (clause 66) now replaces the reference in the previous version of clause 66 to an engineer’s decision with a series of alternative dispute avoidance or “problem-solving measures”.3 An example is the requirement for one party to give the other an advance warning of any matter which, if not resolved, could develop into a dispute. This article focuses on the removal of the engineer’s decision as the first step in the dispute resolution procedure, which has historically been a key feature of the ICE dispute resolution process.


Pt 2]
Correspondents’ Reports—England and Wales

249

The rest of this document is only available to i-law.com online subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, click Log In button.

Copyright © 2024 Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited. Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited is registered in England and Wales with company number 13831625 and address 5th Floor, 10 St Bride Street, London, EC4A 4AD, United Kingdom. Lloyd's List Intelligence is a trading name of Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited.

Lloyd's is the registered trademark of the Society Incorporated by the Lloyd's Act 1871 by the name of Lloyd's.