ABSTRACT
Following the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand, a Royal Commission was appointed to inquire into the buildings that collapsed and caused fatalities. Its Terms of Reference included making recommendations on the adequacy of legal and best practice requirements for building design, construction and maintenance related to managing the risks of building failures caused by earthquakes. The Royal Commission report, in seven volumes, contains a wealth of information of interest to engineers and construction lawyers. Chapter 16 reviews the best practice processes adopted by the Royal Commission to gather and assess expert evidence. The chapter considers design standards and risk, and the issue of an engineer’s duty to warn of known structural inadequacies in the light of legal and ethical constraints.
