Ryan, C; Spillane, J P and Bradley, J G (2024) Barriers to the adoption of alternative dispute resolution within the Irish construction industry: A systematic literature review. In: Thomson, C (ed.) Proceedings of 40th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2024, London South Bank University, UK.
Abstract
The Construction Contracts Act 2013 introduced statutory adjudication to the Republic of Ireland's construction industry. Since the legislation became operative in 2016, uptake of adjudication has admittedly been slow. This research aims to identify the barriers that may cause the non-utilisation of newly introduced alternative dispute resolution (ADR) methods. To address this, a systematic literature review (SLR) is conducted. The search comprises of research documents containing the terms "alternative dispute resolution", "construction", and "Ireland", published between the years 2004-2024. Of the initial 77 documents, 20 are eligible for inclusion in this study. Following this, an exhaustive list of potential barriers is extracted and documented. 16 barriers are identified, including cost of ADR for clients, and third-party's capability, among others. The contribution of this research is to highlight the barriers facing newly introduced ADR methods, a finding that may garner the attention of policy makers, and subsequently enable them to begin addressing the barriers identified. Resultantly making newer methods, such as adjudication in Ireland's construction industry, more accessible and feasible to those they are intended to assist.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | adjudication; alternative dispute resolution; arbitration; conciliation; construction contracts act 2013 |
| Index terms: | construction contract, statutory adjudication, operative, arbitration, conciliation, adjudication, Ireland, documents, legislation, construction industry, systematic literature review, alternative dispute resolution |
| Subjects: | conflict resolution, practitioner, professional development, dispute resolution, contract management, industry analysis, contract type, Geography, legal systems, research evaluation and metrics |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Legal Issues, Contract Administration, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Procurement, Geographical Context, Information Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here