International Construction Law Review
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE—THE BE COLLABORATIVE CONTRACT
NICHOLAS A BROWN
Senior Associate, Masons
I. INTRODUCTION
A programme of research and analysis conducted in the United Kingdom in 2001 revealed a positive attitude within the British construction industry towards partnering as a method of working1
and levels of participation in collaborative procurement within the market appear to remain high. Notably major public sector purchasers within the construction industry, such as Defence Estates and the National Health Service, have in recent times formally introduced strategic partnering/alliancing principles into their procurement programmes, and the utilities are following suit. The role of domestic industry bodies in these developments has been at the same time prolific and innovative. Since the year 2000 no less than five partnering-orientated forms have been released into the public domain2
and, at the time of writing, a Joint Contracts Tribunal standard framework agreement and a third edition of the Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) are both due to be published in the first quarter of this year.
The latest step in the development of partnering in the United Kingdom, last summer, saw the formal launch by the Collaboration for the Built Environment (an industry body comprising members from all sectors of industry) of a new form called the Be Collaborative Contract (“BCC”), an accompanying guide to its use (“Guide”) and a report entitled Guide to Risk Management
.
This article will outline the more novel features of the BCC, highlighting along the way a number of issues confronting parties who are considering the adoption of its collaborative drafting principles, and concluding with thoughts as to their suitability for international construction projects.
1 These results were set out in a report entitled, “Partnering—The industry speaks: Report from Masons’ partnering survey”, which may be accessed at: http://www.masons.com/php/page.php?page id=partnersi1157.
2 Namely, DEFCON 2000; Project Partnering Contract 2000; the Joint Contracts Tribunal Practice Note 4, series 2 (including a proposal for a Non-binding project partnering charter); and a new edition of the NEC Partnering Option X12 and Binding Partnering Charter.
[2004
The International Construction Law Review
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