International Construction Law Review
BOOK REVIEW - Chern on Dispute Boards (Practice and Procedure) 3
Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC
Chern on Dispute Boards (Practice and Procedure) 3 rd Edition. By Dr Cyril Chern. Informa Law from Routledge, 2015. (eBook available). ISBN: 978-1-13-878173-3. 738 pp. £225, US$360.
On 8 May 2015 the Seattle Times1
reported that a dispute review board in a US$2 billion tunnel project had ruled that the state should have done more to warn Seattle Tunnel Partners about a steel pipe that tunnel machine Bertha, described in the article as the world’s largest boring machine, struck in December 2013, three days before the giant drill overheated and stalled. It appears that this was one of several decisions from the board to date. Dispute boards have come a long way in the last 30 or more years since their inception in the USA – the Seattle Times article does not explain what a dispute board is, rather it seems to assume its readers will understand and be familiar with the concept. Dispute Boards (Practice and Procedure) suggests that well over 6,600 documented projects had, by the start of 2015, been completed, or were under construction, utilising dispute boards with a total value approaching US$200 billion. Having started in the USA, it is now a truly international form of dispute resolution with dispute boards currently known to be in operation in a wide range of countries around the world.
Dr Cyril Chern has in this third edition of his Dispute Boards (Practice and Procedure) updated and substantially added to the content of the second edition published in 2011. Importantly, the book is not limited to FIDIC Dispute Adjudication Boards, but covers the different types of boards used in the industry including dispute review boards, generally giving non-binding opinions, dispute adjudication boards where boards issue decisions which are usually binding albeit with the possibility for challenge and combined dispute boards as recently developed by the International Chambers of Commerce which normally issue recommendations, but which may issue decisions if so requested. A useful comparison chart of the major rules under which dispute boards are appointed is included within the chapter on the appointment and establishment of a dispute board. Extracts of commonly used contractual conditions providing for dispute boards are also appended at the end of book, including extracts from the various FIDIC contracts, the ICC and the DBF.
The book is a thorough guide for anyone involved in the dispute board process whether as a party, a party representative or, indeed, a board member. Chern takes the reader on a journey starting with a detailed explanation of the concept and legal basis of a dispute board and the types of dispute board, before moving on to a step by step analysis of the various stages in the life of
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