Annual Review of Singapore Construction Law Developments 2021

The inaugural edition of the Annual Review of Singapore Construction Law Developments contains updates on decisions in the Singapore courts which would be of relevance to projects governed by Singapore law. Many of the topics come amidst ongoing developments of relevance in the common law world. We look at the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the orthodox ambit of the penalty rule in relation to the enforceability of liquidated damages clauses, in view of the wider approach that has been taken by the Australian and English courts in recent years. Restraints on demands under performance bonds continue to be an area of development in Singapore law, and an article looks at an instructive framework for evaluating injunction applications brought on the ground of unconscionability laid down by the High Court, and another decision in which the circumstances of a bond beneficiary’s financial difficulties were found to be insufficient to render its call under a performance bond to be unconscionable.

The publication focuses on a number of topics including calls on on-demand performance bonds, hybrid dispute resolution clauses and building a pandemic resilient construction sector.