The Founder and Director of Construction Management Guide, Samer Skaik, was highly commended for his submission ‘Taking Statutory Adjudication to the Next Level: Legislative Review Mechanisms of Erroneous Determinations’ in the 2016 Australian Society of Construction Law Brooking Prize. The paper effectively summarizes the core merits of his PhD research in that area.
The criteria used for awarding commendations include originality of thoughts and contribution to the construction law or its application in the industry as well as the quality of analysis, the freshness of ideas and the value of the work.
A more detailed version of that paper will also appear in the upcoming edition of International Construction Law Review Journal.
The Paper Abstract:
Statutory adjudication was introduced in the security of payment legislation to quickly and fairly resolve payment disputes in the construction industry. One of the interesting features in some legislation is the availability of an express limited right of aggrieved parties to apply for review against erroneous adjudication decisions. In Singapore, the legislation has no equivalent elsewhere in that it provides for a full review mechanism of erroneous determinations considering the fact that adjudicators often have to grapple with complex issues and sheer volume of documents within a very tight timeframe. This paper discusses the various review mechanisms of erroneous adjudication determinations then asks the question as to whether an appropriately devised legislative review mechanism on the merits, should be an essential characteristic of any effective statutory adjudication scheme. The paper concludes by making the case that an appropriately designed review mechanism as proposed in the paper could be the most pragmatic and effective measure to improve the quality of adjudication outcome and increase the disputants’ confidence in statutory adjudication.