ABSTRACT
The law relating to “construction disputes”, more commonly known in England and Wales as “construction law”, arises from the fact that this particular field of endeavour tends to generate a large volume of disputes arising from the actual Works themselves, e.g. delay, disruption, prolongation and the like, as well as the performance of the professionals prior to the Works and its interactions with both these professionals and the Employer. Common law refers to law derived from the courts and is to be differentiated from statutory law or regulatory law. In most common law countries there are “statutes” which are enacted by the legislature and/or “regulations” which are enacted by the executive branch through various departments or agencies, which are invested with power from a legislature. Court opinions in other civil law jurisdictions, e.g. Germany, tend to be much longer than those in France, and courts will frequently cite previous cases and academic writing.
