I was very pleased to see that my friend Jeremy Coggins[1] won the Brooking prize this year with his paper ‘Levelling the Playing Field’ – A proposal for the regulation of unfair contract terms in construction contracts. It is hard to disagree with the thrust of what Jeremy suggests.

Although generally not a fan of government interference in commercial affairs, there is, it seems to me, a very strong case for some more legislation in this field, particularly since the courts appear to be becoming more weak-kneed in their use of the available legal principles to prevent abuse of power in the construction contract arena. Jeremy is kind enough in his paper to mention the contribution I made to the recent Murray review, suggesting some wording for an effective statutory ban.[2]

Some statutory bans certainly have been effective. In particular, the bans both in the UK and in Australasia on Continue reading →