Construction Risk: Allocation and Insurance 730776

A student who has successfully completed this subject should:

Understand the theoretical and practical drivers for risk allocation in construction projects
Be familiar with the risks that can materialise during the planning, design and construction phases of a project, and how those risks may be allocated to, or assumed by, various participants
Have a detailed understanding of the law and industry practice relating to insurance and security for performance
Appreciate the impact that recently introduced proportionate liability schemes have on loss recovery
Be able to provide meaningful advice about the various options that are available to a range of industry participants in structuring and administering projects in relation to these matters
Be able to contribute meaningfully to ongoing industry debates about optimal ways of dealing with these matters at a policy level.

Principal matters to be covered include:

Identifying risk in a construction project and how various industry participants (including principals, contractors, designers, professional advisers, insurers, security providers, and statutory and government authorities) may bear responsibility in relation to those risks
Philosophies and commercial drivers affecting risk allocation in construction contracts and consultancy agreements, and how these are reflected in standard forms
Security for performance mechanisms, including cash retentions, unconditional undertakings, parent guarantees, insurance bonds, adjudication bonds and other instruments
Insurance products available to the construction industry (including public liability, works insurance, professional indemnity/errors and omissions, workers’ compensation, domestic building, structural defects, transit etc.) and the law relating to them (including regulation by legislation, common law principles and treatment under standard-form construction contracts and consultancy agreements)
Proportionate liability regimes (including Part IVAA of the Wrongs Act 1958 (Vic)) and their impact upon contract risk allocation.

Melbourne Law School The Melbourne Law Masters