Introduction to Construction Law

Contract formation under English law: existence, date and terms, applied to an unsigned-contract tutorial through RTS Flexible Systems, British Steel and Wells v Devani, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Identifying an offer in construction procurement: tenders, quotations, qualifications, counter-offers and revocation, through Gibson, Storer, Blackpool Aero Club, Harvela and RTS, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Acceptance by words and conduct: communication and receipt, prescribed methods and execution conditions, silence, and the battle of forms, through Wells v Devani, RTS, Felthouse, Brogden, Entores, Butler Machine Tool and Tekdata, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Consideration for a promise to pay more, intention to create or vary legal relations, and certainty of the bargain, through Williams v Roffey, Rock Advertising, RTS, Wells v Devani, Scammell, Courtney and Ganz v Petronz, applied to a disputed acceleration payment.

Express terms and incorporation, interpretation and document hierarchy, implied terms and amendments, through Wood v Capita, MT Hojgaard, Marks and Spencer, Interfoto, Scotbeef, RWE Npower and Rock Advertising, applied to a disputed design obligation.

How a contractual decision-maker must exercise a discretion: the Braganza duty, the limits set in Socimer and Mid Essex, and their application to an extension of time assessment, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Identifying a breach and choosing the response: classification of terms, the right to terminate and the election to accept or affirm, damages, debt and statutory suspension, liquidated damages and caps after termination, through Great Asia Maritime, Triple Point and Cavendish, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Causation as a separate condition of liability: effective cause against mere occasion, the event to loss chain, and concurrent causes, through Galoo, Quinn v Burch Bros, Malmaison, Walter Lilly, City Inn, John Doyle and North Midland, with a 10-question knowledge check.

The counterfactual question and its limits: where the but for test fails, concurrent and interacting causes, intervening events, and the contractual allocation that decides the result, through FCA v Arch, Galoo, Walter Lilly and North Midland, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Who must prove what, and to what standard: legal and evidential burdens, the single civil standard, proof of an event against proof of its consequences, competing explanations under The Popi M and Datec, and a proof schedule for construction claims, with a 10-question knowledge check.

What actually proves a claim: contemporaneous records and documentary reliability, witness memory, expert opinion under Kennedy v Cordia, and programme logic against actual progress, through Great Eastern Hotel and Balfour Beatty v Lambeth, with a 10-question knowledge check.

Which losses the law allows: the compensatory measure, remoteness and the responsibility undertaken under The Achilleas, scope of professional duty under Manchester Building Society, mitigation and resulting benefits under British Westinghouse, and settlements under Supershield, with a 10-question knowledge check.