At a time when Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) seems to dominate much of the political, and academic, debate in the field of large infrastructure projects worldwide, our first contribution is a review by Jason Chan of Jim Mason’s book “Innovating Construction law: Towards the Digital Age”. Mason’s book argues for moving the law beyond contract-centred thinking toward principles of “transparency, traceability and collaboration” with technology driving this shift, including Smart Contracts, BIM, Distributed Ledger Technology and Blockchain, AI and Big Data. Chan’s review considers how these technologies could reshape traditional project dynamics by introducing more reliable information flows and automating aspects of project delivery. While Mason focuses on the UK, Chan looks to Australia, evaluating the extent to which Mason’s proposals align with emerging Australian digital engineering policies and procurement practices. Chan concludes that, Mason’s book offers a compelling and timely vision for re-imagining construction law as an adaptive framework for a digital future, but he recognises the largely theoretical projections limited immediate transposability to a fragmented Australian legal landscape.

In Part 4 of 2025, Armando Castro and Mohamad El Daouk covered the challenges posed to the construction industry by ESG goals, standards and criteria in Governing ESG in UK Construction rise of Environmental, Social and Governance. Net zero targets and decarbonisation play an important role in this. Our second contribution discusses the contractual treatment of decarbonisation and the ongoing shift from aspirational provisions to enforceable, auditable obligations embedded in standard forms, previously referred to as “Net Zero clauses” and now more pragmatically called “Climate Change Clauses” or “Carbon Emissions Management Clauses”. In Decarbonisation Mechanisms in Construction Law: From the Chancery Lane Project to NEC Option X29 and FIDIC Carbon Management Guide, Andrea Costanzi starts by reminding us of The Chancery Lane Project, a registered UK charity, whose mission is to help organisations use contracts and legal processes to create a green, fair, and inclusive economy. The project has produced model clauses, toolkits and playbooks to assist parties including climate ambition into their contracts. The article then moves on to discuss the transitional JCT 2024 sustainability clauses, before moving onto the NEC Option X29 published in July 2022 and the very recently published (December 2025) FIDIC Carbon Management Guide and Carbon Emissions Guidance.