ESCL Annual Conference in Bucharest 26 October 2018

This year's Annual Conference of the European Society of Construction Law will take place in Bucharest, 26 october 2018.

ESCL 2017 Annual Conference in Freiburg, Switzerland

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

In 2017, the European Society of Construction Law (ESCL) held its annual conference at the University of Freiburg, Switzerland. The conference took place on November 3, 2017, and was chaired jointly by Professor Hubert Stoeckli, the President of ESCL 2016/17, and Professor Martin Beyeler, both of the University of Fribourg.

The focus of the conference was on BIM (Building Information Modeling). BIM is far more than just a new design tool. By encouraging contractor involvement at an early stage of construction planning and promoting a much higher degree of transparency and accessibility of design information, BIM clearly has the potential to profoundly change the way the construction industry operates. While BIM is already beginning to take root in many countries around the world, a wide range of questions remain to be addressed. The ESCL conference provided a forum for discussing those issues from a comparative perspective, offering deeper insight into the changes taking place – helping all of us to more fully understand the direction in which things are moving and be better prepared for the legal challenges to come.

The program included in-depth talks on selected issues related to BIM as well as country reports from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Romania, and the UK.