TBC 2026: David Christie – ‘The Impact of Relational Contracts on Construction Law’

Abstract: Improving the culture of UK construction, to promote “cooperation” and “collaboration”, has been a persistent and longstanding aim amongst policy and practitioner stakeholders. Meeting this requires a multi-faceted response, including scrutiny of legal doctrine and practice, which can pose hurdles. This discussion will look at how the common law responds to these hurdles and what the next steps are. The main focus traces the debate over and development of legal rules around “good faith” in the performance of contracts, in particular where it gives effect to “relational contracts” in English common law. In this work there is particular focus on the emerging area of construction law as a distinct discipline. “Cooperation” as a duty in legal doctrine also draws on deeper ideas of relationality. An example of this is an area of doctrinal difficulty: the so-called prevention principle.

This webinar examines the prevention principle in the context of the discussion of relationality and identifies how it can be recognised within the English common law. There is also a discussion of the extent to which the legal framework will be relevant in the next phase of the construction industry’s technical development, in particular the role of smart contracts. The more the performance of the contract is automated, the more important the underlying relationship becomes. Understanding that will help to manage and reform the legal framework effectively