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February UK: In Monde Petroleum SA v Westernzagros Ltd [2015] EWHC 67 (Comm) the court considered competing jurisdiction clauses . The parties had entered into a consultancy agreement which contained an ICC arbitration clause. After a dispute arose, the parties subsequently entered into a settlement agreement which provided for the English court to have exclusive jurisdiction. When a dispute arose under that, the claimant issued both court proceedings and arbitration proceedings. The defendant counterclaimed in the arbitration proceedings, but this was dismissed after the tribunal decided it did not have jurisdiction. Relying on dicta in Fiona Trust & Holding Corporation v Privalov [2007] Bus LR 1917 [2008] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 254 , Popplewell J concluded that the jurisdiction clause in the settlement agreement should supersede the arbitration clause, as otherwise the parties could end up spending considerable amounts of time and money dealing with different issues arising out of the same case in different sets of proceedings. The judgment provides a logical solution to the issue, as well as a reminder of the importance of considering the consistency of jurisdiction clauses when drafting related documents. UK: On 5 February 2015, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/102) were published. These Regulations replaced the Public Contracts Regulations 2006. They implement Directive 2014/24 on public procurement and also certain measures aimed at ensuring that small businesses have better access to public sector contracts. For more information on Public Sector Directive 2014 and UK Public Contracts Regulations 2015 please click here . Australia: In February, Standards Australia (the supplier of the most commonly used standard form suite of contracts) released for public comment a draft Australian Standard form of contract AS 1100 ‘General Conditions of Contract’ . The proposed Standard is intended to supersede the AS 2124:1992 and AS 4000:1997 existing Standards. Many contractors, developers, lawyers and consultants in the private and public sector are understood to have provided comment on the draft, the outcomes of which have not yet been released. The key changes from previous Australian standards include enhanced ‘early warning’ requirements imposed on both parties if anything may cause an increase in time or cost, as well as a ‘hand up’ obligation imposed on the contractor to notify if it considers that it has been directed to carry out a variation which has not been instructed as such by the superintendent.
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