Keywords: Construction Related Judicial Process, Disputes in Construction, Qualifications and Competency Levels of Judicial Actors

Abstract: Although the rapidly growing construction sector is a sign of emerging economies for the countries, numerous events of disputes which may conclude with litigation might be encountered in projects more often. Additionally, grounded in our previous study regarding the construction cases between 2007 and 2017 in Turkey, it is detected that Court of Cassation rejected the determination of Court of First Instance by 96%. Concerning this, there appears the question if the legal actors playing crucial roles in litigation process are technically qualified to the extent of satisfactory level. This problem necessitates investigating the qualifications and competency levels of judicial actors. Studies conducted concerning this matter are limited. Hence, to detect the qualifications and competency levels of judicial actors, semi-structured interviews with the major actors of the construction related cases such as judges, lawyers and contractors are conducted in this study. The interviews are analysed through content analysis to address the competencies and qualifications of the judicial actors. One of the remarkable findings is that the young judges and the lawyers accepting all kinds of cases instead of specializing on particular subjects tend to make wrong assessments due to insufficient legal and technical knowledge concerning construction. Additionally, summoning a technical person as an expert witness to all kinds of cases related to construction without considering his/her main specialized area such as construction management, geotechnics, hydraulic, structure etc. contribute to wrong assessments of the cases.

Download Paper

Share this page