Direct Claims in Construction Law

Abstract

This thesis scrutinizes the Danish Construction Law in order to obtain a coherent understanding of the direct claim. The Danish Construction Law entails the opportunity of filing a direct claim against one of the construction parties. A direct claim regulates the circumstances where the nearest contracting party is excluded and instead claims are rectified against the non-contracting party.
In extension of the above, the thesis examines the legal position of the parties in the contract chain, primarily the sub-contractor. The legal effects and consequences of a direct claim against the subcontractor is that valid signed limitation of liability clauses with the main-contractor can be disregarded.
To comprehend the complex of problems, the thesis’ point of departure is in a number of arbitral awards and court rulings in order to not only elucidate but also analyze how these problems are treated. Concurrently, an analysis of the legal literature has been carried out in order to emphasize the development of the negligent behavior that has provided access to direct claims.
Further, the thesis analyzes the contractual conditions from an economic perspective hence, to elucidate the challenges that may be associated with a contract.
Conclusively, based on the results this thesis will provide two proposals of efficient solutions so that the sub-contractor's limitation of the liability clause will be recognized and respected in the future.