Legal and General 

Contract conditions set out the principal legal relationship between the parties to a construction project, determining the allocation of risk and consequently, price.

English law, unlike the codified legal systems in Europe which recognise a duty of good faith, is not concerned with fairnessbut with certainty (unless it is a consumer contract protected by statute such as the Consumer Protection Act 1987 or the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977).

The construction sector has a wide range of standard forms of contract which are intended to balance the risk of the parties but more importantly, through extensive and repeated use, give rise to a certainty of meaning. Well-known standard form contracts include the Joint Contracts Tribunal (JCT), the New Engineering Contract (NEC) and for international projectsFédération Internationale des Ingénieurs-Conseil (FIDIC).