We are pleased to announce that Franco Mastrandrea, HKA Partner, and regular contributor on construction disputes, has been published in the latest edition of the International Construction Law Review.

In his article, “Notice Provisions: A Modern Cult Lacking Balance?”, Franco offers a thought provoking and critical examination of the increasingly stringent notice regimes found in today’s major construction contracts, using the backdrop of the FIDIC 2017 Red Book General Conditions. Drawing on his extensive international expert and dispute resolver experience, he explores whether these tightly drawn notice provisions achieve the balance claimed for them and genuinely promote better project management, or function as severe contractual tripwires that can unfairly disadvantage users, particularly contractors.

The article explores:

• the seemingly inexorable rise of formal, time‑barred, notice regimes
• the claimed justifications for their use
• the gradual judicial erosion of reasons why such provisions might justifiably not be strictly enforced, and the attendant reduction in successful defences against them
• the often dramatic consequences of a failure to comply with such notice requirements, including double exposure for the party failing to give the notice 
• what, if any, relief there may yet be for failure to comply with such requirements
• what might be done to bring some broader balance into such provisions
• what the outcomes might instead look like if the claimed justifications for enforcing such provisions were reflected in the valuation remedies available to the party entitled to the notice   

Franco argues that without recalibration, notice provisions risk undermining the claimed fair and balanced risk/reward allocation between the contracting Parties often promoted by their drafters.

Subscribers to i-law.com can read the full article here: https://www.i-law.com/ilaw/doc/view.htm?id=451099

To get in touch directly, please contact Franco Mastrandrea who welcomes discussion with practitioners, in‑house teams or project leaders who want to explore the topic further or consider its implications

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Media contact

Name	Jill Dawson
Title	Senior Marketing and Communications Manager
Number	+44 20 7618 1200
Email	jilldawson@hka.com