UK

Equitable Set-Off – A New Direction After Geldof?

Frances Pigott

August 2015

A paper presented to the Society of Construction Law at a meeting in Birmingham on 21st January 2015

Equitable set-off has traditionally been a difficult defence to define. The Court of Appeal in Geldof Metaalconstructie v Simon Carves reviewed a number of important cases and in drawing the threads together has rationalised the test for equitable set-off. In this paper the judgment of Rix LJ is reviewed and the implications of that judgment considered.

Rethinking Private Nuisance in the Twenty-first Century: A Critical Analysis of Coventry v Lawrence

Paul Singh

August 2015

A paper based on the highly commended entry in the Hudson Prize essay competition 2014

In 2014, in Coventry v Lawrence (No 1), the Supreme Court was given an opportunity to review some important aspects of the law of private nuisance: how easements may arise by prescription, noise as a specific version of nuisance, the remedies available (damages or injunction?) and the relationship of what is in effect a part of land law to the public law of land use planning. The outcome sets the law on a new course in several directions.

Building Information Modelling: The Legal Frontier – Overcoming Legal and Contractual Obstacles

May Winfield

January 2015

A paper based on the highly commended entry in the Hudson Prize essay competition 2014

Driven by the Government’s 2011 Construction Strategy requirement for the industry to move towards BIM, its implementation is gathering pace and throws up a host of interesting legal challenges. May Winfield’s paper seeks to set out a contractual framework or checklist of contract terms for use in any BIM-enabled project.