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15 Constr. Law. 76 (1995)
Book Review

handle is hein.journals/conlaw15 and id is 132 raw text is: __Book -Review FIDIC 4th: A Practical Legal Guide By E. C. Corbett Published by Sweet & Maxwell, London and. The FIDIC Form of Contract: The Fourth Edition of the Red Book By Nael G. Bunni Reviewed by Charles Molineaux Published by BSP Professional Books, London To some Americans, the acronym FIDIC may suggest a federal insurance program; to those construction lawyers aware that the reference is to the Fdration Internationale des Ing6nieurs-Conseils, the conclusion may seem logical that a FIDIC form of contract must be French (and there- fore civil law)-based, a mistake indeed made in some pres- tigious publications. In fact, the FIDIC4orm of contract conditions for civil works is basically EnglislwFirst formu- lated from the works conditions of the British Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 1957, the FIDIC General Conditions have gone through three subsequent editions, the Fourth Edition having been published in 1987. What makes the FIDIC civil works conditions text of significance in the industry is its worldwide usage; it is rec- ommended by the U.S. Agency for International Develop- ment and physically incorporated by the World Bank in its own Sample Bidding Documents volume (now mandatory for Bank borrowers). That having been said, where might one turn for some guidance through the somewhat Victorian prose of FIDIC 4? An American lawyer might assume that there are com- puter-accessible case annotations available, hopefully set up on a clause-by-clause basis. The reason that this is not so becomes evident enough: the FIDIC Red Book1 has always included an arbitration clause and arbitration is nor- mally private. Fortunately, in recent years, a strong trend has been on to publish international arbitration awards, or extracts, when possible (because the parties so consented, or because the award went to court, or even in a sanitized version with names and identifying data deleted).2 In addition to the few available awards, there is indeed a Red Book Guide, published by FIDIC-a carefully written but rather brief explanation of the FIDIC clauses.3 What of the two extended text books published since FIDIC 4? A British solicitor, Edward Corbett, has authored FIDIC 4th-A Practical Legal Guide; an engineer in Ireland, Nael Bunni, has authored The FIDIC Form of Contract. This review comments briefly on both works, 76 THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER April 1995 although comparison is necessarily limited by reason of the very different approaches and backgrounds of the authors. The title of the Corbett text would suggest that it is pri- marily directed to a legal readership but in the Preface the author indicates that it is intended for the full dramatis personae of a civil engineering project. This is fine but unfortunately becomes the stated rationale for avoiding footnotes and subordinating case references. It would have been useful to the general practitioner reader to have referred at least to one or more of the standard texts on the underlying ICE conditions. Further, while texts may indeed by sparse, one might expect bibliographical refer- ences to the many articles on the FIDIC conditions which have appeared in the International Bar Association's International Business Lawyer journal, The International Construction Law Review and elsewhere. For American lawyers, it would have been useful to compare the FIDIC approach and clauses with those of the documents of the American Institute of Architects or the EJCDC as well as to cite to more than a nominal few American cases. Having called attention to 20 clauses (of the total of 72 in the Red Book) needing attention because of perceived ambiguities, anomalies or discrepancies, the author then sensibly urges that changes should be kept to a minimum. Unfortunately, he fails to discuss here the interplay role of Part I (General Conditions) and Part II of the Red Book. The FIDIC view is that Part I should be tampered with min- imally, with particular applications for country and project left to be spelled out in Part II, the Conditions of Particular Application. It was rather stilted for the author to adopt the style of referring to the FIDIC Committee as the draftsman. Although this is but a style, it suggests that the FIDIC con- ditions should have more stylistic consistency-an admirable goal which, however, overlooks the drafting and revising reality that this document, as standard forms often are, was prepared as a compromise. A first-time FIDIC reader, in fact, necessarily finds himself shifting gears as he

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