Construction contracts

On May 31^st 2018, Academy of Justice within its Continuous Training Program organized a training on the Construction Contracts.

The aim of this training was to extend the judges knowledge on the construction contracts.

First part of the training elaborated on features of the constructions contracts and their specifics; general terms – special terms of the contracts and the clause “keys at hand”. Whereas the second part of this training continued with elaboration of the changes to the price due to market changes; legal procedure in protection of the business parties, in disputes deriving from failure to fulfil these contracts, and ways as well as criteria for evaluating the specific elements in cases of claims for failure to complete the contracts, or dispute of their validity.

The training emphasized that the construction contract, according to the legal nature is a special type of contract. With regard to liability for failures in construction, then the legal rules on the contracts for the work are appropriately applied. The contract for the work is a basic contract, whereas the contract for construction is considered as a derivative contract. 

Whereas for the written form of the construction contract it was highlighted that it has a constitutive effect, since it is a condition of the contracts validity. Besides the legal consequences, disrespecting the written form results with punishing consequences. This would present economic breach – economic crime, which is sanctioned by fine. It was also emphasized that construction contracts and the engineering contracts, actually have found a larger use in the construction area having in mind the reconstruction stage of our country. 

The training also, elaborated on the fact that these types of contracts have a lot of specifics and require special knowledge when applying and interpreting contracting provisions, therefore it requires special knowhow, not only of the legal nature, but also knowledge on the areas that these contracts cover, in order to solve disputes that arise from business relations established by these contracts.

The training continued stipulating the fact that in the court case law, number of disputes arising from these contracts is high, with a tendency to grow, therefore, elaboration of this topic is of particular importance, in order to enhance the judge’s knowledge about these cases.

Participants and the trainers engaged in active and productive discussion of questions and uncertainties that were raised, through analysis of legal provisions and the ways how to correctly proceed and apply the legal provisions in practice; also the theoretical lecturing relying on the courts case law was used.

Beneficiaries of this training were judges of basic courts – general department – civil division and the legal associates.