Some Practical Issues on the International Construction Contract

국제건설계약(國際建設契約) 실무상(實務上) 유의점(有意點)

Many Korean construction companies have been performing a variety of overseas construction projects since the 1970s. It is unfortunate that in many cases they have had to suffer big losses caused by errors and defects in the design and construction of the projects. In the author's opinion, however, there were losses that could have been avoided if they had understood better the feature and content of the particular construction contract. Few lawyers and scholars in Korea have been interested in the research and study of international construction contracts. This is mainly because they do not have access to practical sources outside of Korea for them to research and study since the contracts undertaken have been dealt with by law firms in other jurisdictions to which the disputes apply. This article is aiming primarily at the introduction of the issues which the practitioners are likely to confront in the process of reviewing and performing the international construction contract. In some cases solutions are sought about these issues based upon the FIDIC standard terms and conditions, the actual experience of practice, and UNIDROIT Principles, etc. It is reasonable to say that all the issues related to the international construction contract cannot be covered in a short article like this. The author wishes this article could induce subsequent studies on international construction contracts for further research. It has to be noted that from time to time Korean construction practices have been compared to the international ones for better understanding. This article mostly includes cases where the Korean construction companies go overseas for their projects, while there are some cases where foreign developers and financial investors participated in domestic projects in which international construction contracts forms were adopted. A few precedent domestic writings about international construction contracts seems to lack emphasis on the points that there are several standard construction contract forms and that they are different. The differences are mainly in accordance with who bears the design responsibility, how the owner has to make progress payments to the contractor and who the funding source for the project is. This article tries to make it clear that there are significant differences between the standard contract forms, e.g. a simple construction form, a design-build form and an EPC/turnkey form of contract. Again, the author hopes that this article can arouse the interest in the international construction contracts from both academic and practical fields, so that many subsequent advanced articles can help our construction industry become much more competitive in the world through awareness of the methods of procurement and administration of the contracts.