ESCL Prize 2018

ESCL Thesis Prize 2018 winners

Last week on the 25th till the 26th of October 2018 the annual conference of the European Society of Construction Law (ESCL) took place. This year’s edition was organised by the Romanian Society of Construction Law and took place in Bucharest. It was a two day conference on Procurement Law and a very interesting and inspiring conference. The ESCL consists of 20 national construction law societies and one of the tasks is to promote knowledge of international construction law. Because of the great appreciation for education and research an annual Master Thesis Prize has been created by the ESCL. This is the seventh year this prize has been awarded.

The jury is chaired by the President of the ESCL who appoints two or more other members of the jury. The President of this year’s thesis prize edition was dr. Ovidiu Dumitru (president of the Romanian Society of Construction Law). He appointed Professor dr. Benoît Kohl (Professor, University of Liège and University of Paris II - Counsel, Stibbe Brussels) and Professor dr. Anthony P. Lavers (Counsel, White & Case LLP, London - Visiting Professor of Law, King’s College London) and Professor dr. M. Hugues Périnet-Marquet (Professor, University of Paris II) as jury members.

For the 2018 Thesis Prize, the jury has come to a decision on the first and two second prizes, based on a written assessment of the theses and a conference call discussion. The First prize awarded is EUR 2.500,- and the Second prize awarded is EUR 1.000,-. The winners were honoured in an award ceremony last Friday on the 26th of October 2018. 

This year’s winner was  Giuseppe Giancarlo Franco from Bocconi University, Milan with his thesis titled: “Dispute boards: A comparative study of international practice”. The jury report states that the “The candidate has engaged with a subject of growing importance in the resolution of international construction disputes, drawing together sources from several European jurisdictions. The conclusion offers some stimulating, and very relevant, thoughts on the role of UNCITRAL. The thesis is very well written.”

The joint second prize was awarded to Yu Gao from the Technical University of Delft and to Edwina Elena Udrescu from Kings’ College London.
Yu Gao wrote a thesis with the title: “Early Warning of NEC3 ECC,  A Solution for Dutch Design and Build Construction Problem Solving?”. The jury remarks that “The thesis shows an interesting application of a contractual mechanism from one European country (the U.K.) in the context of another one (the Netherlands). The candidate has achieved clarity of exposition within a logical structure.  Furthermore, the thesis is well written and well presented”.
Edwina Elena Udrescu wrote a thesis titled: “What legal and contractual issues can determine the success or failure of a PPP project?”. The jury states that “[…] the discussion of the crucial legal and contractual issues shows a side of this topic that has been fairly underexposed in the past. The thesis offers a practical and useful analysis of a number of European jurisdictions and therefore shows its value for construction practice.”

The ESCL encourages students to submit their thesis with a construction and procurement law subject and written in English for the next ESCL Master thesis Prize competition. More information on next years’ competition will soon be placed on the ESCL website https://www.escl.org/
More on the 2018 competition can be found here.