Exploring the Legal Aspects of Relational Contracting

摘要

The Associate Editor of the Legal Affairs Section, the Editor of this Journal, and ASCE must be lauded for their vision in initiating Special Issues in areas of emerging concern. The ready acceptance of the proposed theme of "Legal Aspects of Relational Contracting" was gratifying, and justified by the growing groundswell of interface issues and activities in this domain. Academic papers, professional discussions, and practical experiments/exercises in this area have recently snowballed beyond the critical mass that warrants serious international review and reflections on lessons learned and potential improvements. There is increasing recognition of the emerging needs for high-level fora to probe and present critical issues and to activate discussions on ways forward for relational contracting approaches, that include improved approached in partnering and alliancing. Therefore, it was felt useful to single out and focus our special "forum" on a particularly critical issue, by addressing the potential legal implications and impacts of the various ventures into the realm of relational contracting in construction projects.