Corruption of the commercial process revisited

Mason, Jim

Abstract

This article is based on a report entitled “The Corruption of the Commercial Process” (“the Report ”) written over twenty years ago by John Huxtable, the then Chairman of the Confederation of Construction Specialists. The Report is a passionate call to arms exposing the injustices felt by specialist contractors. This article conducts an enquiry into the validity of the findings of the Report before updating Huxtable’s material from the viewpoint of a 21st century specialist contractor.

The Report was the original rallying cry for the Confederation of Construction Specialists (“the Confederation”) timed as it was with that body’s inception in 1983. The Confederation was set up to provide an effective national focus for the interests of specialist construction companies. The Report includes a Declaration of the Rights of Construction Specialists and a ten point challenge to the wider construction industry to improve the position of the specialists. The main section of the Report promotes Huxtable’s contention that the imposition of one sided terms and conditions by main contractors on specialist contractors amounts to a corruption of the commercial process.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2016
• Journal: Construction Law Journal
• Print ISSN: 0267-2359
• Publisher: Sweet and Maxwell
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 235-249
• Keywords: specialist contractors, subcontracts, onerous contractual terms, risk apportionment
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/986765
• Publisher URL: http://www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/Catalogue/ProductDetails.aspx?recordid=438&productid=7003
• Contract Date: Nov 15, 2016