On 17 July 2018, the CIArb Cairo Branch organized a seminar on “The enforceability of time bar clauses in construction contracts: a comparison between the English/Welsh common law and Egyptian law jurisdictions”. The speaker was Dr. Waleed El Nemr, Vice-President of the Branch, Head of the Contract Department at Hill International, Africa Branch, and the moderator was Prof. Dr. Mohamed S. Abdel Wahab, the Branch President at that time, Founding Partner and Head of International Arbitration, Construction and Oil & Gas – Zulficar & Partners Law Firm, and Chair of Private International Law – Cairo University. The topic is of interest to engineering and legal practitioners alike, since the loss of a contractor’s right to claim additional payment or time in a construction project due to the lapse of time is a recurrent theme in construction disputes and arbitration ever since the launch of FIDIC’s Red Book in 1999. The hour-long presentation was followed by three hours of a questions and answers session. The thought-provoking Q&A session witnessed the active participation of engineers and lawyers and feedback indicated intellectual exchange at the session proved to be beneficial to all those who participated.
The seminar was well attended by about 120 participants from Egypt, Iraq, Japan and Jordan representing a diversity of business sectors: construction, engineering, contract administration, management consultation, real estate, power system projects, electricity, telecommunication, petroleum, investment and insurance. Also, members of law firms, universities, the National Youth Council Foundation, Ministries of Education, Water Resources, and Justice attended the event.
