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Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

This study was motivated by a belief that existing knowledge on management of a contractual claim in international contracting practice is different from a standardised local practice. The paper is aimed at building competence for managing contractual claims in a standardised practice.

Comparative studies of British and Finnish contracting practices were used to determine the reason why claims are not pronounced in a standardised practice. Empirical study via direct interviews and questionnaires of a Finnish‐based contractor operating in the Russian markets was used. The players are three‐dimensional in nature where the client, consultants, and contractor come from different countries/practices and two of the projects studied were joint ventures.

The findings show the effects of: legal system, procurement methods, standardised practice and size of the market on the management of contractual claims. The remedial measures suggested include: operational management, i.e. learning through personal contacts, and management competence development of employees by learning through proper communication and education programmes in a form of continuing professional development.

Management of claims in the construction industry is vital to a successful implementation of the project. It brings about a fair dealing between the project owner and the contractor, improves contractor's cashflow and discourages abandonment of project and disputes. Lack of knowledge in managing claims constitutes a threat to successful implementation of project. The engagement of an expert and knowledge transfer through joint ventures/partnerships are suggested as solutions.

Claims are increasingly becoming a norm in construction projects and thus an area that is attracting interventions through researches. This paper aims to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects.

This is correlation study type of study that attempts to establish causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. Significant causes and effects of construction claims were determined using one-sample t-test. To establish the relationship, the significant causes and effects of construction claims were correlated using bivariate correlation analysis.

Among the significant causes, variations, change of scope of the project and delay in completion of works have high level of significant positive relationship with five to six other causes and positive relationship with multiple effects ranging from five to six. Besides, among significant effects, delay in completion and delivering of construction projects, poor contractual relationship among parties and extension of time have significant positive relationship with multiple causes.

The findings of this study are limited to causes-causes relationship and causes–effects relationship of claims in construction projects. This means effects–effects relationship was not covered that could be an important area to investigate as some of causes and effects are at times termed interchangeably.

With reference to previous studies which have focused on determining the causes and effects of construction claims, the findings of the current study have specific contribution on claims management as it divulges the causes of constructions claims that have multiplier effects to the project as a result of their linkage.

The paper unveils causes of claims with multiplier effects to construction projects for project participants to devise strategies to minimize and consequently eliminate them.

Legal remedies are incorporated into international construction joint ventures (ICJVs) to mitigate contractual breaches. The effectiveness of remedies is predicated on two conditions; the comprehensiveness of the contract and its enforceability within the jurisdiction of interpretation. Relational-related weaknesses contribute to contracting parties placing a premium on the contract's capacity for mediating the relationship. However, contracts are not always enforceable. This study aims to examine means by which joint venture relational governance can be maintained under conditions of minimal legal recourse.

A relational contracting (RC) theory was used as the theoretical underpinning of the paper. Data were collected and analyzed following a multiple-case study approach from case projects in which ICJVs' was used.

The findings reveal (1) 17 relational and contractual governance problems; the main six being contractual flexibility, contractual joint venture system, contract reviewing, project conflict, national culture and leader–follower transgressions; (2) relational and contractual governance problems are managed differently, depending on financing sources and partners' national culture; and (3) that a developed RC-based framework comprising four stages is able to facilitate relational and contractual governance in ICJVs.

This study is novel in providing a guided approach to developing non-legal remedies for the mitigation of contractual breaches in ICJVs, grounded in theory and contextualized for the construction sector.

Claims have become an inseparable part of construction projects across the world. Construction claims often tend to result not only in time and cost overruns but in case of a dispute arising from the claim, it may result in erosion of the brand value and the working relationship between the parties. Thus, construction claim prediction is important but is complicated because of a large number of dependent factors and the complex inter-relations between them. With the aid of machine learning techniques, claim tenability assessment for real estate projects in India is attempted in this paper.

In this research, artificial neural network (ANN) and decision tree models are used for assessment of claims in the Indian real estate sector using project and claims data from 275 real estate projects.

The developed ANN model assesses the claim tenability in a project with a high degree of accuracy. Both ANN and decision tree models identify that “inconsistency between drawings and specification” as the most influencing factor in claim tenability assessment.

Notwithstanding the claim tenability assessment, the model, in its current form, cannot be used to predict the “extent of claim” in the real estate projects.

Claim tenability assessment in real estate projects, especially in India, is scantily discussed in literature. This research, by adding to the body of knowledge, helps in both claim assessment and identification of factors that need to be controlled to reduce the claim tenability in real estate construction projects in India.

The purpose of this paper is to provide tests to apply and establish what factors are relevant in determining whether or not an employee had a reasonable expectation of renewal of a fixed‐term contract as envisaged in section 186(1)(b) of the 1995 LRA.

The paper draws from case studies to examine whether these actionable conducts can be defined in a precise way.

The common law scenario, has been materially altered by the provisions of section 186(1)(b) of the 1995 LRA that the employers' non‐renewal of the contract or offer to renew the contract whilst the employee reasonably expected the employer to renew the contract therefore it constitutes a dismissal.

The common law interpreted that where a fixed‐term contract expires, where an express term in the contract stipulates that there is no expectation to renew the contract in the mind of the employee concerned that the contract will be renewed again; the employer will have no contractual remedy available to him. This paper calls upon common law to use and pro‐actively manage labour law responsibilities and further refine the existing dismissal tools.

This paper contributes the rethinking of labour rights is necessary because the social, economic and political environments in which they were first conceived have been fundamentally affected by modern globalization and the expansion of the network society.

This chapter analyzes the extent to which more experienced employers, arbitrators, and attorneys fare better in securities industry arbitration. Although studies into experience have identified a so-called repeat-player effect on outcomes, I argue that more nuanced considerations of experience are required.

I empirically analyze all employment arbitration awards from the securities system’s inception through 2008. I separate experience into two categories (between- and within-group effects) and run hybrid random- and fixed-effects regressions modeling increasing employer, attorney, and arbitrator experience on arbitration outcomes.

I find that between-group experience affects awards but that within-group experience is nonsignificant, except in civil rights cases. This implies that so-called repeat players gain an advantage over inexperienced players due to their entity-specific characteristics, not necessarily by learning to use the system to their advantage. I conclude that, although the securities arbitration system suffers from power imbalances, there is little evidence of systemic exploitation by firms.

Prior studies into employment arbitration are limited both by their definitions of experience and by their methodological approaches. I overcome these issues by employing a novel methodological approach to measure between- and within-entity experience, which adds a more multifaceted and nuanced framework to the literature than the common repeat-player versus single-player dichotomy.

The dispute resolution process in the construction industry is known for delays in settlement, with some cases even escalating to complex arbitration and litigation. To avoid conflicts turning into disputes, the parties need to be proactive in identifying and resolving conflicts in their nascent stages. It is here that innovative lean construction practices can potentially act as a game-changer to avoid disputes, and this study aims to attempt to understand this phenomenon empirically.

A questionnaire-based empirical study, followed by semi-structured interviews, is conducted to understand the relevance of key tenets of lean principles in dispute avoidance.

Although stakeholders agree on the usefulness and practicality of lean principles in dispute avoidance, the extent of agreement is lesser when it comes to its implementation practicality. Moreover, there is a demographic influence observed on lean tenets such as “open communication”, “stakeholder collaboration” and “constraint identification”.

The results point towards an approach that combines contractual mandate, training and awareness creation to iron out the differences in the usefulness and practicality of lean approaches to avoid disputes.

Lean implementation is widely discussed in many construction contexts, such as sustainability, productivity improvement and planning. However, a discussion on lean philosophy’s role in dispute avoidance is muted. Therefore, this study assumes significance.

The purpose of this paper is to help parties to “TBA contracts” better understand how their claims would be treated in the event that a Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 (SIPA) proceeding was commenced with respect to their counterparty.

The paper explores the arguments made in favor of and against treating TBA contract claims as “customer claims” under SIPA in the Lehman Brothers Inc. SIPA proceeding and the resulting decision of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York on the issue.

The Bankruptcy Court found that TBA contract claims are not “customer claims” under SIPA and properly are classified as general unsecured claims.

This was an issue of first impression for the Bankruptcy Court and may have a binding effect on other TBA contracts (although other TBA contracts may have distinguishable facts). Future investors may alter the way they purchase and sell these securities in order to manage counterparty risk. Deeming TBA contract claims as general unsecured claims will also result in a larger pool of assets for creditors actually deemed customers of Lehman Brothers Inc. under SIPA.

The paper provides guidance from experienced bankruptcy lawyers.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse factors that affect contractors’ behavioural strategies in resolving disputed claims.

Factors were explored by a literature review and an open-ended questionnaire survey. In total, 9 hypotheses involving 12 factors were developed accordingly. Then a structured questionnaire survey was conducted, and 248 valid questionnaires were received from Chinese contractors. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypotheses.

Factors that have the largest impacts on the contractual approach and the relational approach regarding obliging and compromising are favourability of evidence, time pressure and reputation, respectively. Unexpected results show that obliging behaviours are negatively correlated with procedural fairness but positively correlated with occurrence time of the dispute.

The results are based on correlation, although the research design improves the internal validity. Furthermore, this study belongs to single-level research. In the future, researchers can conduct multilevel research to enrich theories.

The findings not only enhance practitioners’ understanding of the factors influencing contractors’ behavioural strategies when dealing with disputed claims, but also offer insights into both parties’ ex ante focus of attention on specific factors to facilitate the subsequent dispute resolution.

This study furnishes a nuanced picture of multiple factors’ impacts on contractors’ behavioural strategies of claim-related dispute resolution, and thus supplements the relevant construction dispute management literature. From the perspective of contractual governance, it is one of those exploring drivers of contract application in problem situations. It extends the body of knowledge on this topic and hopefully will encourage more research on contractual governance from the reactive perspective.