The New Engineering Contract, 3rd Edition - Early Warning And Compensation Events

The NEC is a major attempt to draft a simple and direct standard form contract from first principles without attempting to build upon the standards forms that already exist. The authors of the NEC gathered under the auspices of the ICE, and were principally led by Dr Martin Barnes. The specification prepared by him in 1987 set out the aims of those drafting the NEC. These included:

• To achieve a higher degree of clarity when compared to other existing contracts;
• To use simple commonly occurring language and avoid legal jargon;
• Repeat identical phrases if possible;
• Produce core conditions and exclude contracts specific data to avoid the need to change the core terms;
• Precisely and clearly set out key duties and responsibilities;