This brief paper is based upon the personal experience of the author with Dispute Boards (DB) gained over the past years as a defense attorney for various international Contractors during eight individual dispute referrals using the DAB procedure from 2004 to 2007. The aim of the paper is to share the author’s experience which has been acquired exclusively from the Contractor’s side, with those involved in DBs.
How do you enforce a binding but not final “ex parte” Decision of a Dispute Adjudication Board (“DAB”) under a FIDIC contract? A recent Final Partial Award in an ICC arbitration has, for the first time, provided a timely answer to this difficult but important question. Summary A Contractor referred various disputes arising on a construction project to a single member DAB pursuant to a slightly amended FIDIC 1999 Red Book contract; The Employer refused to participate in any stage of the DAB process arguing that the DAB had been improperly appointed and was invalid; […]