From the Co-Chairs – Construction Law International – March 2023

Dear International Construction Projects Committee members,

When you receive this issue of Construction Law International, the Christmas holiday season will already be a vague memory. We hope everyone had a good start of this new year.

The year 2022 will be remembered with mixed feelings. Finally, after two years of Covid restrictions, most of us were able to travel again. Given the success of not only the Working Weekend in Vevey, but also the attendance at the Annual Conference in Miami, it is fair to say that we all have missed these in-person gatherings. On the other hand, 2022 was overshadowed by the war in Ukraine. The war not only affected the Ukrainian people and all those personally hit by the war, it also fuelled a global economic crisis, leading to an increase in inflation and uncertainties about energy supplies. This crisis also had an adverse effect on the construction industry due to price increases and shortages of building materials. Sadly, a quick resolution for this conflict is not to be foreseen.

Perhaps a positive side effect of the energy crisis is that it accelerated the development of more sustainable resources and the development of new construction methods and building materials that help reducing our carbon footprint and led to an increased focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) in construction.

Looking back at a successful Working Weekend in Vevey and a well-attended Annual Conference in Miami, we realise that all this was only possible thanks to the hard work and dedication of all our officers, our ICP members and IBA staff. Thank you all for your relentless support of our ICP Committee.

The start of the new year also marked the second year of our tenure as Co-Chairs. We feel privileged that ICP is able to host three different in-person events this year. The first one being our Biennial Conference on Construction Projects, from Conception to Completion, which will take place from 16–18 March 2023 in Berlin, Germany. Preparations are progressing well for our second event, the traditional Working Weekend. We are delighted that our past Co-Chair Ricardo Barreiro-Deymonnaz offered to organise the 2023 Working Weekend in Mendoza, Argentina. This weekend will take place from 5–7 May this year. Given the success of previous Working Weekends, this weekend has already been fully booked. Our final in-person event will be the IBA Annual Conference in Paris, France, from 29 October until 3 November. More information on the ICP session topics and calls for expressions of interest to participate in our sessions, will follow in due course.

Our committee is privileged in having its own magazine, Construction Law International, also known as ‘CLInt’. We encourage ICP members to contribute papers or smaller contributions to CLInt, so that we can continue publishing this excellent magazine.

Finally, since we only have a few opportunities in a year to meet in-person, we invite all ICP members to reach out to us and share your thoughts and suggestions on how to make the ICP Committee a better committee and a tool to share our knowledge. 

We are looking forward to meeting with you at one of the ICP events this year.

Joseph Moore
Hanson Bridgett, San Francisco
jmoore@hansonbridgett.com

Jean-Pierre Van Eijck
Spant Legal, Eindhoven
jvaneijck@spantlegal.com

Co-Chairs, IBA International Construction Projects Committee