| dc.description.abstract | Modernity brings with it a construction industry whose complexity grows in terms of
technology and contractual relationship. The life cycle of a construction project never runs short
of disputes which often end up in courts. Primarily due to the complexity of a construction
dispute, the court sometimes must seek professional examinations or opinions from specialties
in helping deciding the dispute case.
In addition to interpreting the contract terms, laws and underlying facts, the court may also
rely on the use of engineering customs or practices, as a form of law, to decide a case. Such
engineering customs/practices come from those who proclaim or are regarded as “experts”, and
are presented in the form of expert opinions.According to Civil Code Clause 1, the effect of
such engineering customs is paramount to that of law, and therefore would form the conclusive
reasoning to a construction dispute.
The purpose of this study is to justify the use of engineering customs for construction
disputes, and to identify the operable standards or guidelines as thresholds for qualifying a
particular engineering custom. This study will conduct an industry-wide questionnaire survey,
covering the roles of the employer, the consultant, the contractor, dispute lawyers, and related
specialists. The outcome of the survey will be tested statistically and form the conclusions of
this study. This study will also adopt the standards/guidelines in selected construction dispute
cases, to demonstrate the practicality of this findings. | en_US |