Dispute Adjudication ist not a very recent development. But in fact in civil law countries only a few specialists are dealing with it. Whilst in England, due to the fact the English legislator has set in forth the HGRCA 1996 with detailed adjudication rules, a lot of knowledge and experince as to dispute adjudication alreday exists, the civil law lawyers are dealing with new practises without any support from the national courts as to issues as there are: unfair dispute adjudicators, breach of natural justice, jurisdiction of the DAB, liability of arbitrators etc.

It can not be doubted that a solid percentage of complex arbitration cases arise from construction disputes, often caused by unpredictable vagueness of nature, unsufficient co-ordination of multiple subcontractors, changing technology and changements in law but also by errors in calculation and faulty design. For many years, the sensible approach, via the standard forms, has been to refer such disputes to the "engineer" and then to arbitration. The elder FIDIC standard forms are perhaps the best example for this praxis. Particularly in the United States, the growing impatience with the expense and slowness of arbitration and dissatisfaction with the role of the "engineer" has led to the rise of other forms of "alternative dispute resolution" (ADR) or of dispute prevention devices. This kind of dispute resolution procedure continues to be recognized, especially because of their rapidness and lower cost compared with those in arbitration.

Since years dispute adjudication has been recognised by the World Bank Group in its SBDW and has therefore become a worldwide used form of dispute resolution. In recent days especially in east-european countries an increasing number of adjudication procedures can be stated. Thus EJ International Litigation Commission will have the opportunity to give some support to the practical and academic discussion.

We will start by discussing the practical impact of recent English court decisions, such as the Scheldebouw case (Scheldebouw BV v St. James Homes (Grosvenor Dock) Ltd [2006] EWHC 89 (TCC) (16 January 2006))and the Bechtel case (Costain Ltd & Ors v Bechtel Ltd & Anor [2005] EWHC 1018 (TCC) (20th May 2005)). Both cases concern the position of the Engineer and the practise of Adjudication Boards. Several other decisions from the English courts will have to be discussed in the light of civil law jurisdictions. The Group will publish its results on this website.