Dubious Allocation of Liability in the ICC Model Joint Venture Contract

Abstract

Construction joint ventures are amongst the most common instances of open joint ventures. In 2018, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published a model open joint ventures contract for construction projects to provide businesses with a balanced form of the agreement, enabling them to work together as joint operators. While the model contract provides a well-structured framework to regulate the relationship between the parties, the authors of this article are of the opinion that the basis for liability among joint venture members in the ICC Model Contract is dubious, if not wholly fallacious. Although much of what we say on the issue of liability of joint venture members in this article can equally be applied to all types of open joint venture agreements, or even close joint venture contracts, our main focus in this article is to scrutinize and criticize the proposed liability clause in the ICC Model Contract.