Contractors, employers, funders, governmental organisations, professionals, sub-contractors and many others have for some time been actively engaged in the promotion of dispute avoidance in the construction industry. Despite this, large projects continue to produce significant claims. Dispute Boards are one of the dispute avoidance options regularly debated. They can offer real opportunities to resolve disputes in a way that enables a project to stay on track and to be successfully delivered. In large international projects this mechanism, or ADR procedure, is now relatively common. In “Dispute Boards in International Construction Law: Are Transnational Principles Emerging?” Raquel Macedo Moreira investigates whether we are now at a stage where a coherent set of transnational principles can be said to be emerging from the large range of dispute board frameworks which are available. Most industry standard forms (FIDIC, NEC, JCT) provide for dispute boards. Institutional rules likewise provide (ICC, AAA-ICDR, CRCICA). And there are numerous ad hoc models (CIArb, DBF). Despite this wealth of offering, Dispute Boards are frequently not appointed in projects which provide for them. They are often required by institutional funders to protect their investment, but they come at some cost, particularly standing boards. Moreira carries out a comparative analysis, and identifies common features, such as independence, early appointment, and informal assistance. She also highlights differences in enforcement, institutional involvement, procedural formality, and regional legal constraints. Moreira concludes that the common, or “converging”, points indicate that we are seeing the formation of a body of transnational norms.

From the management of disputes, we move onto a topic which seems likely to give rise to more disputes in future years. Our second contribution is concerned with the challenges faced by the industry in identifying and enforcing Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) goals. 
Dr Armando Castro and Dr Mohamad El Daouk explore the adoption and management of ESG in the construction sector and its implications 
for sector members in “UK Construction: Professional Perspectives and Dispute Risks”. The article provides a wide-ranging analysis of the UK legislation, standards and criteria which continue to transform the UK construction industry. The authors ultimately conclude that although the legal framework for ESG is continuing to evolve in the UK, there is an increasing risk of ESG-related litigation within the UK construction sector, including in the areas of greenwashing claims, failures of contractual enforcement, director and corporate liability, and claims relating to supply chain negligence and criminal activity. The authors flag the future challenges posed by emerging technology in construction, such as AI, blockchain, Internet of Things sensors, and sophisticated data analytics and models.