The paper describes the main features of the 1999 edition of Fidic’s Red Book, possibly the most commonly used standard-form construction contract in international projects. The paper is addressed to construction professionals who already have an understanding of English construction contracts but have not yet looked into Fidic contracts. The 1999 Red Book is for use when the contractor has been given the design by the employer. The contract features general and particular conditions, the latter of which have to be drafted by the parties before the contract is entered into. A typical feature of the 1999 Red Book is the role of the engineer. Whether he has to act for the employer or whether he has to make a fair determination depends on the matter in question. There are two striking differences from the contract JCT SBC 2005 regarding claims of the contractor. First, only the 1999 Red Book contains strict time bars. Second, the clauses which contain events that justify claims are spread out over the whole contract and not contained in comprehensive lists of events. New features are clause 13.2 on value engineering and clause 20 on the impartial dispute adjudication board.

Freelance procurement expert, Bucharest, Romania Contribution by Peter M. ElliottWith reference to Hillig et al. (2010) I suggest that it would have been more appropriate to compare the Fidic '99 suite of contracts with NEC3, rather than the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT) contracts, as NEC3 is designed for civil engineering works as is Fidic '99. Furthermore, the suite should be considered as a whole, including the recent Gold Book, rather than concentrating on one form. Clauses from different documents in the suite can replace the standard clauses in another version without compromising the integrity of the contract. Thus the ad hoc dispute adjudication board (DAB) specified in the Yellow Book can be replaced by the full-time DAB in the Red Book, if appropriate.