17 Nov 2020: Professor Doug Jones AO co-chairing session at IBA Annual Conference 2020

Professor Doug Jones AO will co-chair the session ‘The pendulum swings both ways: use and abuse of variation provisions in construction contracts’ at the IBA Annual Conference 2020: Virtually together on Tuesday 17 November hosted by the IBA International Construction Projects Committee.

Doug will be joined by co-chair Murray Armes (Sense Studio, London) and speakers Alex Bevan (Shearman & Sterling, Dubai), Jonathan Parker (Clyde & Co, Qatar) and Olusina Sipasi (Aelex, Nigeria).

The pendulum swings both ways: use and abuse of variation provisions in construction contracts – Overview

Variation or change procedures in construction contracts are common although take many forms. Often they are drafted in order to allow the Employer to manage the risk of informal changes issued on site and resulting in delays or additional cost. Some are prescriptive in their requirements with a set of steps required as a condition precedent to any change instructions being valid. However, the operation of these provisions in practice can often be different to the letter of the contract, for example, informal discussions on site or in meetings where change is ‘instructed’ notwithstanding the provisions and then acted upon, followed by disputes as to entitlement to payment for work undertaken as a result. This session will consider how these clauses operate in practice, how they can be used and abused and what are the rights and obligations of the
parties in these circumstances.

For further details, or to register, please click here.

Tuesday 17 November | 1100 – 1200 EST (GMT-5) | 1600 – 1700 GMT | 0100 – 0200 JST (GMT+9)