Book Review: Construction Law (3rd ed. 2020), by Julian Bailey

• Author: By Stephen A. Hess
• Pages: 37-37

THE CONSTRUCTION LAWYER 37Summer 2020

Published in The Construction Lawyer, Volume 40, Number 3 Summer2020. © 2020 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion

thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Construction Law,

by Julian Bailey (3rd ed. 2020)

By Stephen A. Hess

BOOK REVIEW

Stephen A. Hess, based in Colorado Springs, is a member

of Sherman & Howard’s Construction Industry Practice

Group and a former editor of The Construction Lawyer.

Attorneys post ornately

framed diplomas, certifi-

cates, and testimonials on

what some observers sarcas-

tically call a “Me Wall.” I

don’t have a Me Wall—not

for want of an oversized ego

(got one) but for want of a

decent framing budget when

I started practicing. By the

time I could invest a couple

hundred bucks to broadcast

to the world—or at least to

anyone who happened upon

my ofce—that I am a member in good standing of the

Sales and Use Tax Bar Association of Greater East Mis-

soula, I had long since lost the certicate. Damn.

COVID-19 has changed the “Me Wall” dynamic. We do

not meet in ofces—we meet over the Internet in videocon-

ferences. Many of us are facile enough with teleconferences

that we do not plan to return to our ofces. That means we

cannot be judged by our Me Walls, but only by what our

visitors see behind us in our Zoom meetings. Bland curtains?

Probably a secure room in a work-release center. Not good.

Beaches and waves? Probably not thinking about the law. A

copy of An Idiot’s Guide to Contracts? Your client will get

out the Yellow Pages.1

You know where this is headed, since you are reading a

book review. A few well-chosen tomes behind you will imply

that you are educated, especially if your audience indulges

the presumption that you have actually read what is on your

shelf. Two treatises serve as my anchor tenants on the visible

portion of my library: Bruner & O’Connor on Construction

Law (which seems to expand by another volume when I am

not looking) and Construction Law, by Julian Bailey.

Construction Law is Julian’s terric, three-volume trea-

tise that covers fundamental construction law in England,

Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. The current Third

Edition went into print earlier this year, and London Pub-

lishing Partnership has produced a magnicent book whose

physical quality is every bit as exceptional as its contents.

The binding is now an eye-catching but pleasing deep orange,

and the pages are thin yet comfortably opaque. These vol-

umes are solid—and I mean physically sturdy—with each

coming in at nearly four pounds, including the courtesy cord

that is sewn in for use as a bookmark. All in all, a hefty and

impressive production for attorneys who savor the touch

and feel of treatises as welcome relief from the trend toward

electronic research and digital publications.

These attributes are important to the author and to

his new publisher. The superior content is what matters

most, of course, but Bailey and LPP have been driven to

put this book out in hard copy alone to avoid the scourge

of Internet piracy, and LPP has delivered the treatise in a

most attractive form that warrants trust in the print-only

decision. Most striking, as Julian notes, is the fact that the

Third Edition has a recommended price that is a small frac-

tion (about one-fourth, to be precise) of the listed price of

the Second Edition. He hopes (as do we all!) that this starts

a trend toward publication of treatises at more reasonable

and more accessible prices. Blackwell’s, for reference, lists

the Third Edition at $168.52 for all three volumes, com-

pared with $614.79 for the 2016 Second Edition.

My assessment of the Second Edition in these pages

(37 The Construction Lawyer, Winter 2016, at 42) stands—

“the writing is efcient and pellucid,” etc.—and it was a

sound investment at four times the price. The scope has not

changed measurably, but the contents have been updated

with countless new references and updates that make the

treatise an accurate statement of the law through Novem-

ber of last year.

The treatise is invaluable as a reference for those who

practice in the four jurisdictions it covers, of course. At

the same time, it offers a wonderful overview to Ameri-

can practitioners in two respects. First, the introduction

to construction contracts and law generally is superb and

among the most cogent I have come across for those new

to the world in which we practice. Second, it is refreshing

to read about different approaches to discrete construction

law topics as a reminder that many American construction

law principles are neither obvious nor inevitable, but rather

required consideration and deliberate choice among equally

plausible alternatives.

I believe that construction law (as most areas) is far more

fully appreciated with some sense of its history, the com

-

mercial role, and the conscious adoption of legal principles

(or blind adoption, in some cases), and Construction Law

serves us well—and at less than the cost of a frame for your

Most Amazing and Respected Lawyer EVER certicate.

Endnotes

1. For younger attorneys, “Yellow Pages” denotes an anti-

quated advertising mechanism in which consumers could judge

attorneys by the audacity of their listings. “Hammerhead Hess”

would have drawn clients.

Stephen A. Hess