International Construction Law Review
Adjudication of Construction Disputes in Tanzania: Overcoming its Statutory and Practical Challenges
Julius Clement Mashamba*
Senior Lecturer
ABSTRACT
While construction adjudication is used as a method of dispute resolution in the Tanzanian construction industry, there is no specific law recognising it. This has occasioned challenges, including the reluctance of some parties to use adjudication for lack of an enforcement mechanism. This article proposes the enactment of a law to regulate construction adjudication, provide a procedure for enforcing adjudicators’ decisions and accreditation of adjudicators just as the law provides for accreditation of other ADR practitioners. The law should also provide for a code of conduct for accredited adjudicators.
1. INTRODUCTION
For a long time now, participants in the construction industry in Tanzania have been using standard form contracts adopted by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers – popularly known for its acronym, FIDIC1 – to regulate various aspects of construction projects, including dispute resolution.2 One of the methods that FIDIC-related standard form contracts apply to resolve construction disputes is adjudication, which is said
* Julius Clement Mashamba LLB (Hons, UDSM), LL.M (OUT) and PhD (OUT) Senior Lecturer and Ag. Deputy Principal (Training, Research and Consultancy) and former member of the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; as well as former Solicitor General of the United Republic of Tanzania. Organisation: The Law School of Tanzania. Emails: julius.mashamba@lst.ac.tz; mashamba.jc@gmail.com. This article is a result of the author's ongoing research on the law and practice of construction dispute resolution in East Africa. It was prepared under the auspices of the Tanzania Ministry of Constitutional and Legal Affairs broad reform of the ADR system in Tanzania.
1 FIDIC is an acronym that stands for a French-named international organisation: Fédération Internationale Des Ingénieurs Conseils (i.e., the International Federation of Consulting Engineers). See https://fidic.org/ (last accessed 19 May 2026).
2 Bank of Tanzania v Galilea Co Ltd High Court of Tanzania (Commercial Division) at Dar es Salaam, Commercial Case No 000030499 of 2024, Case Reference No 202412031000030499 (unreported) (hereafter “BoT v Galilea”) (holding that: FIDIC is “best known for developing international standard forms of contract used in the construction and engineering industries worldwide. These contracts are designed to fairly distribute risk between parties involved in construction projects”).
336