Overview
Most contract risk is not a drafting problem. It is a commercial one.
Construction and engineering contracts allocate risk through clauses that sound clear and operate ambiguously. Experienced practitioners read them, sign them, and then discover during delivery that the risk sits somewhere different from where the wording suggested.This book explains why. It moves past legal interpretation to examine where contract risk actually lives - in the commercial decisions made during pricing, negotiation, and delivery, not in the words on the page.Across twenty chapters, it works through the clauses that drive the largest commercial outcomes on real projects:
Scope and change - output versus method specifications, variation valuation, design responsibility, ground risk.
Time and programme - extension of time mechanisms, liquidated damages, float ownership, concurrent delay.
Money and payment - payment certification, retention and security, price adjustment and inflation, claims procedures.
Risk allocation - liability caps, indemnities, insurance gaps, force majeure.
Management and closeout - interfaces, testing and defects, dispute resolution.
The approach is practical rather than theoretical. Each chapter applies the same three-question framework: What does this clause make you do? What happens if you cannot? Who decides whether you have? The answers determine where risk actually transfers - and where it does not.
Who this book is for
Written for commercial managers, project directors, procurement leads, and senior engineers with commercial authority on capital projects. The assumed reader already knows how contracts work and wants a clearer view of how risk does. References FIDIC, NEC, and JCT to illustrate different risk allocation approaches without being a clause-by-clause commentary on any of them.What this book is not
Not a contracts law textbook. Not a drafting manual. Not jurisdiction-specific legal advice. Not a claims tactics guide. It is concerned with judgment, trade-offs, and consequences - with the commercial decisions that create contract risk, and the commercial responses that manage it.This item is Non-Returnable
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Details
- ISBN-13: 9798196275913
- ISBN-10: 9798196275913
- Publisher: Independently Published
- Publish Date: May 2026
- Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.75 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.07 pounds
- Page Count: 364
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