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International Construction Law Review

COMPATIBILITY OF FIDIC'S DRAFTING PRINCIPLES WITH CONTRACTING PRACTICES IN THE GULF: A PERFECT MATCH OR A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE?

Michael Grose

Partner, Clyde & Co LLP (Dubai)*

ABSTRACT

This paper considers whether FIDIC’s drafting principles are compatible with contracting practices in the Gulf, how this will be affected if the changes signalled in the Pre-Release second edition of the Yellow Book are adopted throughout the new suite of FIDIC Conditions and whether these changes threaten the popularity of the FIDIC Conditions in the region.

FIDIC CONTRACTS IN THE GULF

The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (“FIDIC”) was formed in 1913 by a small group of consulting engineers from Belgium, France and Switzerland and has since become “the voice of the consulting engineering industry in a globalised world”.1 In the world of international construction contracts, however, FIDIC is best known as a publisher of popular standard forms of contract.
Since the publication of FIDIC’s first standard form in 1957, FIDIC contracts have become a ubiquitous feature of construction projects in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”) states.2 The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which the FIDIC Conditions3 owe this success to the drafting principles that underpin them. Consideration is given to whether the success of the FIDIC Conditions is attributable to the compatibility of these drafting principles with contracting practices in the GCC or has been achieved despite inconsistencies between them. Further, consideration is given to how the changes signalled in the Pre-Release second edition of the Yellow Book4 will affect this compatibility if, as expected, the proposed

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