Abstract

Like other areas of our society, the construction industry has undergone a digital transformation in the recent years. This development has not yet been completed and is still being pursued through both governmental and private initiatives. A crucial aspect related to the digital transformation of construction industry is the use of BIM (Building Information Modeling), which is a socio-technical collaboration method.

This dissertation deals with BIM and its impact on construction law, i.e., the legal consequences resulting from the use of BIM and its two main aspects – digitization and collaboration.

This dissertation uses the legal dogmatic method and aims to describe and determine applicable law. For this purpose, the dissertation sets out two main work theses:

• – The use of BIM will affect the contractual interpretation and result in new behavioral norms.
• – The use of BIM will result in new/modified services and affects the division and allocation of the parties’ risk and responsibilities.

The dissertation is divided into four parts: an introductory part, a theoretical part, a practical part, and a concluding part.

The introductory part contains a presentation of the dissertation’s topic, method, and structure. In addition, hereto, a definition of and explanation of BIM and its content is made. In connection with this, the division of BIM into the two central aspects of construction law – digitization and collaboration – is introduced.

In the theoretical part, an analysis is made of the impact of digitalization and collaboration on contract law, and thus the overall legal system on which construction law is based on. The analyses points to several situations in which respectively digitization and collaboration challenge the basic preconditions of contract law.

The practical part deals with BIM’s influence on four essential issues of construction law; interpretation, the parties’ duty of care, services, and liabil-Side 285ity. In the chapter on interpretation, BIM’s impact on the interpretation of construction agreements is analyzed. It is pointed out that BIM, especially the digitalization and increased amounts of information, will result in an increased normativization when it comes to the interpretation of construction agreements. The chapter on the parties’ duty of care analyzes how the increasing collaboration between the parties and the exchange of increasing amounts of information affect the parties’ duty of care, which i.e., is expressed through the intensification and a timely advancement of the parties’ duty of care. In the chapter on services related to BIM, a systematic analysis is made of the services that either arise or are affected by BIM. Based on the concept of services within the law of obligations, a systematization of the individual services is carried out. As a result, specific challenges resulting from this systematization based on the law of obligations are pointed out. The chapter on liability contains an analysis of the division of risk and liability between the parties involved in construction projects when BIM is used. The analysis is based on the individual parties’ contractual liability regarding the delivery of BIM-related services, including the question of the basis of liability. The chapter also deals with the issue of direct claims and the question, whether the parties’ access to raise direct claims is affected by an increasing collaboration across contractual boundaries.

The concluding part summarizes the results of the dissertation’s analysis to verify the dissertations two work theses. Furthermore, the dissertation concludes that the use of BIM to a large extent presupposes and sets the stage for an increased formalization of construction law, an area of law that so far has been characterized by pragmatism.

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