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The relationship between infrastructure project owners and their contractors is generally governed by contract law. However, where the project owner is a State, there are often additional requirements from public law to be complied with. The challenges posed by the interplay between public law and private contractual relationships in such context have been highlighted by litigation concerning the effect of a constitutional requirement that any international business and economic transaction to which the Government of Ghana (GoG) is a party is not to become operational without parliamentary approval. Through analysis of five decisions of the Supreme Court of Ghana on the interpretation of this constitutional provision, this piece highlights the devastating consequences that inattention to public law could have on parties who contract with the GoG and its agencies. It also examines the extent to which the judicial interpretation of the constitutional requirement really furthers the interests of transparency and openness that it was intended to promote.

Examines the approach of Ghana's Alternative Dispute Resolution Act 2010 to the question of arbitrability. Reflects on the concept of arbitrability under international law, the relevant trends emerging from case law, and the approach adopted by the Ghanaian High Court in Attorney General v Balkan Energy LLC. Reviews the Act's arbitrability exemptions, their implications for international arbitration in Ghana, the potential jurisdictional challenges under the legislation and how its provisions could be amended to increase its conformity with international trends on arbitrability.

Purpose: The prevention through design (PtD) initiative places a duty on designers to originate designs that are inherently safe for construction, maintenance, occupation and demolition. In the UK, legislation has been introduced creating a new statutory role called the principal designer (PD) to ensure that PtD occurs during the design process. To realize this objective, PDs under the regulations must have appropriate skills, knowledge and experience (SKE) of occupational safety and health risks as they relate to construction products. However, there is a paucity of knowledge, in the extant literature and in practice, regarding what specifically constitutes PDs' SKE of PtD and how to measure the same. Design/methodology/approach: The study undertook a systematic review of meanings of SKE and carried out content analyses to provide robust conceptualizations of the constructs SKE. This underpinned the development of nomological networks to operationalize the constructs SKE in respect of PDs' ability to ensure PtD. Findings: PDs' SKE of PtD are presented as multidimensional constructs that can be operationalized at different levels of specificity in three theoretical models. Practical implications: The models indicated in this study can assist project clients to clarify the PtD SKE of prospective PDs in the procurement process. Correspondingly, PDs can look to these frameworks to identify their SKE gaps and take steps to address them. Originality/value: This study contributes to the PtD literature by providing theoretical frameworks to clarify the PtD SKE of PDs. The study provides a basis for future research to empirically test the attributes of these as they relate to PDs' competence to ensure PtD.

Infrastructure comprises the physical facilities, institutions and organisational structures or the social and economic foundations for the operation of a society (UNCTAD, 2008). The World Bank (1994) defines infrastructure in physical and economic terms as public utilities (power, telecommunications, piped water supply, sanitation and sewerage, solid waste collection and disposal and piped gas), public works (roads and major dam and canal works for irrigation and drainage) and transport facilities (urban and inter-urban railways, urban transport, ports and waterways, and airports). Whilst the 'public' tag may no longer be relevant in the light of widespread private sector participation and ownership, one can agree with the examples of infrastructure projects cited in the definition above. UNCTAD (2008) provides a similar list with a caveat that this is changing with the growth of information communication technology (ICT). Many authors such as Prud-homme (2004) and Kessides (1993) also define infrastructure projects in similar terms as the World Bank report. In Ghana, infrastructure has been defined to include 'immovable capital such as, roads, power plants, water delivery systems, sewerage treatment plants, telecommunication and transport facilities, electrification, hospitals and schools' (World Bank, 1997, p.2). All these facilities share common characteristics (UNCTAD, 2008). Firstly, they are capital-intensive. They are 'formidable undertakings' (p.88) involving huge financial outlay. Secondly, they often involve physical networks of strategic importance. Thirdly, they are also major determinants of the competitiveness of an economy; good infrastructure can play a major role in the decision of an investor to set up in a particular economy. Fourthly, in many societies, services associated with infrastructure are thorny social and political issues and, thus, subject to public interventions. Finally, infrastructure projects are relevant to economic development and global integration.

Closed access ; Purpose – Project insurance is designed to get over the perceived deficiencies of the conventional insurance practice. It involves the entire project supply chain being insured under a single policy taken out by the project owner. The purpose of this article is to report the outcomes of a study aimed at developing understanding of project insurance practice and how it compares with the conventional system. Design/methodology/approach – The study consisted of a questionnaire survey across four sectors of the construction industry. Findings – Direct experience of project insurance is still very patchy. They also raise doubt whether project insurance offers significant benefits to the supply chain members with direct responsibility for designing or executing projects. The main advantages of project insurance over the traditional fragmented insurance products reported by respondents were: avoidance of litigation to determine which member of the project supply chain should ultimately be liable when loss or damage occurs; the ability to obtain cover for projects too large for the insurance capacity of some members of the supply chain; ability of the project owner to purchase customised cover. Research limitations/implications – The disadvantages were: there is duplication from contractors, sub‐contractor and designers still having to purchase the traditional products for projects on which project insurance is not implemented; the levels of excess in the available project insurance products are too high; there is little reduction in the annual insurance premium bills of contractors, sub‐contractors and designers. Practical implications – Universities and other educational institutions can contribute to developing wider awareness by including project insurance in not only their educational curricula but also their research priorities. The UK Government's decision to implement project insurance on some demonstration projects is a step in the right direction but needs to involve the research community who are better able to distil the experience for dissemination to the wider industry. The insurance industry needs to play a more proactive role by reassessing the levels of excesses in their project insurance policies and collaborating with the research community to develop more detailed knowledge of the technique. Originality/value – This is the only reported empirical study into the use of project insurance in the UK construction industry.

Multilateral Development Banks including the World Bank have identified infrastructure development as a crucial component of any poverty alleviation strategy in developing countries. The last two decades have seen tremendous increase in the percentage of resources developing countries have invested in infrastructure development. About {pound}755 million was committed to private-public infrastructure development in the developing world between 1990 and 2001. Unfortunately, as exemplified by the Dam Construction Project in Lesotho, disputes often arise from major infrastructure projects in the developing world that are resolved at great cost by courts and arbitral tribunals constituted from the most expensive legal professionals in the developed world. This research presents a critical review of the literature on the experience of such disputes and the methods used in resolving them. It derives from the preliminary phase of a study aimed at developing the knowledge and understanding necessary for more cost effective resolution of such disputes. The key findings of the review so far are as follows. What literature exists is limited largely to resolution by international commercial arbitration. As to be expected of the size of these projects, governments or state entities are often parties to the underlying contract and, therefore, the disputes from the projects. In the overwhelming majority cases, the parties from developing countries are often the respondents and rarely the claimants. There is a perception that developing countries are always at a considerable disadvantage in the conduct of arbitration proceedings, which is a source of disaffection with the process on the part of these States. However, what is most remarkable about the literature is that, although there is a rapidly growing use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods other than arbitration to resolve similar disputes in the developed world, the literature is silent on the use of such methods on projects in developing countries. The paper ...