ABSTRACT
Sociology can be traced back to the dawn of society when the law was believed to have been handed down by the gods for use by ordinary people. It was first codified as early as the year 2100 bc by the Sumerian King Nammu, but the most famous code of that era is Hammurabi’s Code of 1760 bc, which contained not only the first recorded reference to construction law, but also the first reference to construction risk and construction insurance.
As religion evolved, its influence on the social fabric of society brought about a change in attitude towards the principles of restitution and compensation. Various civilisations produced different legal systems and the principle of compensation has applied since the eleventh century.
Insurance, as we know it today, was not developed until sometime in the fifteenth century ad with the advent of marine insurance. Accident insurance, to which branch construction insurance belongs, did not evolve until the nineteenth century ad after the industrial revolution and the consequent expanding use of machinery. Construction insurance, as distinct from machinery insurance, did not come into being until the 1930s.
This chapter also sets out the development of standard insurance clauses within standard forms of contract, as well as outlining some of the risks that modern society has to deal with, together with the impact that these risks have on the construction and engineering professions.
