Covid-19, FIDIC And Construction Contracts

One of the potential difficulties with international projects is that the contracts entered into are governed by laws which may be unfamiliar to one or other of the contracting parties. For example, there is a difference in the way that force majeure is treated in common and civil law jurisdictions. Whilst most civil codes make provisions for force majeure events, at common law, force majeure is not a term of art and its meaning is far from clear. No force majeure provision will be implied in the absence of specific contractual provisions, and the extent to which the parties deal with unforeseen events will be defined in the contract between them. Thus without a specific clause, there will not necessarily be relief for force majeure events. The current pandemic caused by Covid-19 has generated much discussion about force majeure and this article looks at the position under the FIDIC form of contract and in the UAE and Qatar.