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L et鈥檚 look at some recently published construction dispute books. They all get good marks out of 10, except that two points are deducted from each because they don鈥檛 include a CD-ROM. Then take away another two points because there is no free download.

Download? Yes, for the new electronic book-reading gizmo that I want for Christmas 鈥� one with a natty book-page-size screen that makes the downloads look as though they are printed on paper. So come on, my publishing chums, shake a leg.

First out of the traps is the fourth edition of The Arbitration Act 1996. Yes, yes I know we talk endlessly about adjudication these days; so what鈥檚 happening with its big daddy, arbitration?

Actually it鈥檚 alive and kicking; 2007 is the busiest year I鈥檝e ever had with construction industry arbitrations. Remember, arbitration is binding while high-speed adjudication is binding only until an arbitrator or judge makes the dispute forever binding.

The book鈥檚 authors, Bruce Harris, Rowan Planterose and Jonathan Tecks, are very experienced arbitrators; two in construction, the third in shipping. The temptation with a book like this is simply to tell the reader what each clause of the legislation says. The authors do that, of course, but they also tell us what it means and why it is there. Experience bleeds through each summary of every clause. You can feel the 鈥渋fs鈥� and 鈥渂uts鈥� and the 鈥渙h, by the ways鈥� they have encountered in real life.

Causation in Construction Law by Daniel Atkinson is a triumph. Okay, okay, I admit it: this is because it is a subject I find especially fascinating. Did I hear the work 鈥渁norak鈥�? The truth is I make my living because very few people in the disputes business even get their minds around causation.

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall/Humpty Dumpty had a great fall 鈥� But what was the cause? Some folk never even consider cause: they leap from the incident to the claim for money.

Atkinson knows about claims and disputes. And by gum he now knows a heck of a lot about causation in construction law. He trained as a chartered engineer before becoming a barrister. He is a busy dispute sorter-outer in civil engineering.

For umpteen years, judges have explained that causation is a matter of 鈥榗ommon sense鈥�. But as one man鈥檚 common sense is the next man鈥檚 nonsense, they have been miles apart

But my heart fell when Atkinson started to explain concepts of causation. Crumbs, it is terribly learned! At the complex explanation of 鈥渋nduction from uniformity of sequence鈥�, I yelled: 鈥淏ut Danny, where art thou, my erstwhile engineer, clad in wellies and muck and diggers?鈥�

Then the penny dropped: this true son of the construction industry was wrestling with common sense. For umpteen years, judges have been explaining that causation is a matter of 鈥渃ommon sense鈥�. But as one man鈥檚 common sense is the next man鈥檚 nonsense, the judges have politely been miles and miles apart on the meaning of the term. And here was my construction industry friend trying to make sense of it.

Happily, the book soon gets into its construction industry stride and begins to talk wellies and muck and diggers. Buy it.

Chern on Dispute Boards deserves more space, but is a last-minute arrival on my desk. Cyril Chern is a chartered architect as well as a barrister, so he, too, knows his construction business. He has served on disputes boards all over the world but admits that little is known about them 鈥� hence

the book. In short, they are standing committees or groups appointed to visit the project from time to time and be on hand to deal with disputes.

There are different notions about the board鈥檚 role. Some make binding decisions, that is, adjudicate. Others make recommendations. Some mediate while others advise. But some do everything. The truth is that the system is still maturing and trying to accommodate hugely differing ideas about building dispute management. This is a must-have book for grown up contractors.

"There's nothing we can do..."

We can make a claim!"