It is with great pleasure that, for the second year in a row, I write the foreword to the annual Arcadis Global Construction Disputes Report. Disputes in the construction industry continue to be proliferate due mainly - according to this year's report and in the following order - poorly drafted or incomplete and unsubstantiated claims, failure to make interim awards on extensions of time and compensation, and the Contractor/ Subcontractor failing to understand and/or comply with its contractual obligation. As for the most used methods of dispute resolution, arbitration continues to be the most used adjudicative method. Only in continental Europe does litigation make the top three list. In all regions, the top one dispute resolution method is party-to-party negotiation. The only one exception is the United Kingdom, where the top one method is adjudication. Is it because adjudication is so effective that claimants prefer to catch the other party by surprise rather than attempt negotiation or mediation instead? The effect of the COVID-19 is, and will be, inevitably, significant for the industry and for dispute resolution. It is, therefore, encouraging that, in line with what I advocated in my previous foreword, parties are already looking in their contracts for collaborative solutions to early risk identification and management and dispute avoidance. They should persist in this direction. At the same time, it will continue to be essential to provide, in contracts and subcontracts, for effective and well-designed binding dispute resolution methods such as adjudication, DAABS and arbitration that can easily function also in emergency situations such as the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As every year, this report offers interesting data and important insights. I commend it to construction practitioners all over the world.
RENATO NAZZINI, FCIARB |