ABSTRACT
The interaction between building professions in 19th- and 20th-century Belgium has mainly been sketched by focusing on the collaborations between the different professionals in day-to-day construction practice or on their professional associations. As a result, a specific form of interaction has not yet received attention: their moments of conflict. Studying legal conflicts and their resolutions offers insights into the ways different professions fought over what should be considered as their competences. Since the 20th century was key to the development of judicial construction expertise by multiple Belgian building actors, this paper analyzes the nature and scope of construction conflicts and their resolution by judicial experts to gain insights into the mutual demarcation of professional competences among architects, engineers and contractors. In order to do so, 48 expert reports on construction conflicts (1957-59) were analyzed, which are preserved in the archive of the Brussels Court of Commerce (State Archives Brussels (SAB)).
