Delivering improvements in ethical behaviour in the construction industry through the implementation of contractual good faith provisions

Mason, Jim

Abstract

The interaction between ethical principles and legal rights and duties was noted in a paper given by Uff 2003 as: “extending the definition of acceptable professional conduct”. The paper makes the argument that an ethical approach may hold the key to a number of the problems which have beset the construction industry for many years and may lead to a fairer and ultimately more prosperous future.
At the time, Uff was involved in the formulation and dissemination of an ethical code for construction professionals produced by the Society of Construction Law . This chapter seeks to establish another method of promoting ethical behaviour through recent innovations in contractual practice.
The direction and implementation of each stage of the construction process is overseen and managed by professionals. Depending on the nature of the work, they will be engineers, architects, surveyors, lawyers, construction and project managers. Each of these professionals operates under an existing ethical code and the same professionals bring this ethical code with them when they operate in the field of construction law. Notwithstanding this, a widely adopted uniform code does not currently exist and the sheer variety of personnel involved on a typical construction project and the diverse nature of their tasks make such a code difficult to contemplate.

• Publication Date: Sep 11, 2008
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 14, 2016
• Journal: Ethics for the Built Environment by Fewings,P
• Print ISSN: 9780-4154
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: Ethics for the Built Environment
• ISBN: 978-0415429832
• Keywords: ethics, built environment, good faith
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1009169
• Contract Date: Feb 14, 2016