Building Law

Building Law covers topics which are essential for understanding of the built environment. Every building project has certain needs:

(a) capacity. This means that the building initiator needs designs, engineering, building materials and labor. The building initiator will use the legal instrument of contracts to arrange this. In this context, rules for procurement are relevant. These rules require that sometimes competition between suppliers of goods and services is required.

(b) Land. This means that the building initiator has to buy or lease land on which the project is realised. Contracts, pre-emption right and expropriation may be used to get access to land.

(c) Permission. The building initiator needs permits and plan approvals before the work can commence. Permit procedures make sure that the building project is tested against relevant norms and criteria.

On top of this, the building initiator needs to make sure that conflicts are avoided as much as possible.

The fields that are taught in this course are: Building contract law, Procurement law, Property law, Planning law, Environmental law and Public private partnerships. It includes private law and public law, from the building level to the level of urban development.