Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Procedure for the Construction Industry

Given the contribution of the construction industry to the national economy, it is important for the relevant parties to make visible efforts to ensure that the projects will be successfully implemented. Yet, it must be noted that conflict tends to happen due to the complex nature of the construction industry and the involvement of so many parties along the contractual chain, adversarial relationship, uneven risk allocation and uneven bargaining power. Therefore, it is necessary to have a proper mechanism to avoid dispute in the first place, because once conflict turns into dispute it could affect project success. Having said that however, the biggest challenge came from some academicians and practitioners who were very skeptical as they do not think dispute can be avoided. One of the reasons simply because many publications in this area said that construction dispute is inevitable. Furthermore, previous research and publications in this area are more focus on dispute resolution rather than avoidance. Hence, it may explain why this book seems to be among the pioneer to promote the concept of dispute avoidance.

It is hoped that this book could spark interest among the practitioners, academicians, students and stakeholders to explore the viability of having dispute avoidance procedure in place, and serve as the main reference book for research in this field. This is a must-read book for students enrolled in the construction-related programmes, and particularly relevant for quantity surveying students and the construction law related courses offered in the institution of higher learning.