The 12th International Society of Construction Law Conference invites abstracts from practitioners, arbitrators, judges, engineers, contractors, employers and academics working in construction and infrastructure.

The conference is hosted by the Society of Construction Law Serbia at Sava Centar in Belgrade, from 29 September to 1 October 2027, and is expected to bring together around 300 delegates from across the international construction law community.

The conference theme is The Confluence: Where currents meet. Construction law sits at a meeting point: common law and civil law traditions, engineers and lawyers, owners and contractors, standard forms drafted in one legal culture and applied in another. We are looking for papers that work at those meeting points.

Call for abstracts closes on 15 December 2026 (23:59 CET).

The four sub-themes

Four currents run through the programme, each opened by a keynote and developed in the sessions that follow. The sub-themes below set the direction of the programme and each abstract must be submitted under one of them. The indicative topics are examples of what falls within each and are not exhaustive; submissions on other subjects within a sub-theme are equally welcome.

Who Carries the Risk or “Who Risks the Risk”

Risk allocation across borders and standard forms, at a point where employers, contractors and insurers are all trying to hand the same risks to someone else.

Indicative topics include:

• Whether the standard forms reflect how risk is actually priced
• Ground conditions, force majeure and change in law after five years of shocks
• Carbon and sustainability obligations as contractual risk: embodied carbon specifications, net zero commitments, reporting duties passed down the supply chain, and who bears the cost when they are missed
• The cost of getting allocation wrong: what the project has already lost by the time a dispute reaches arbitration
• Supply chain and subcontract risk, including insolvency down the chain
• Collaborative and alliance models: real transfer or relabelled transfer
• Insurance and bonding as the silent third party in risk allocation
• Time and money: concurrency, disruption and the perennial problems the standard forms have still not solved

Empowering the Power Transition

How renewables, hydro, nuclear and grid infrastructure are being contracted and delivered, and who bears the delay when approval rests outside the contract.

Indicative topics include:

• Contracting models for utility-scale renewables and the disputes they generate
• Nuclear new build: liability, long-lead procurement and the limits of standard forms
• Grid connection and curtailment risk as a contractual problem
• Public, multilateral and private capital on the same project, and what that does to risk allocation
• Permitting, consenting and environmental challenge: delay caused by decisions neither party can control, including where the state is both counterparty and regulator
• Storage and pumped storage: allocating performance and availability risk where contract practice is still forming

The “Elephant Machine” in the Room

What artificial intelligence is already doing on site and in the contract, from progress monitoring to drafting, delay analysis and decision-making, and what the industry should do about it.

Indicative topics include:

• AI on site: programme and progress monitoring, productivity and quality control, and what the resulting data proves when the project goes wrong
• Autonomous plant, robotics and automated inspection: liability, standards and who is responsible for the output
• AI in contract drafting and review: reliance, verification and professional responsibility
• Automated delay and quantum analysis: evidential weight and admissibility
• Disclosure, privilege and confidentiality when models sit inside the workflow
• The EU AI Act and comparable regimes as they touch construction and dispute resolution
• Whether an AI-assisted award or judgment is a different kind of decision

Who Disputes That There Is a Dispute

Courts, arbitration, dispute boards and adjudication: what does each do well, what travels between systems, and where and by whom should construction disputes actually be decided?

Indicative topics include:

• Specialist construction courts and what transfers to civil-law jurisdictions
• Statutory adjudication beyond the common law world
• Dispute boards: the evidence on whether they work
• Multi-tier clauses, conditions precedent and jurisdictional fights over them
• Enforcement across borders and the practical cost of choosing wrongly
• Who decides and who advocates: entry routes into the profession, appointment practice, and the generation now taking over
• Arbitration as “cherry on the top” or last crumb on the plate

Who should submit

We welcome submissions from legal practitioners, in-house counsel, arbitrators, adjudicators and dispute board members, academics, engineers, quantity surveyors, delay and quantum consultants, contractors, employers, developers and funders.

This is not a conference for lawyers alone. Submissions may be legal, technical, commercial, empirical or interdisciplinary. What we are looking for is a clear argument that will hold a room of experienced international practitioners, not a survey of settled law.

We particularly welcome submissions that draw on more than one jurisdiction, that challenge accepted practice, or that bring evidence rather than assertion.

How accepted abstracts are used

The programme is built around four keynotes and seven sessions. Every delegate attends every session; there are no parallel streams.

An accepted abstract is an invitation to take part in one of those sessions. Most accepted authors speak as part of a panel with a moderator. Sessions will also use other formats, e.g. structured debate or a live demonstration.

Sessions are 80 minutes, including introductions, discussion and questions from the floor.

Sessions are discussion-led. Sessions are not slide-supported, and speakers should prepare to speak rather than to present. Where a specific image, chart or extract is essential to the argument, it may be requested through the Content and Programme sub-committee.

Moderators are appointed by the Content and Programme sub-committee.

What to submit

You will be asked for:

• An abstract of no more than 500 words
• A title of no more than 120 characters
• Your chosen sub-theme
• Three keywords
• The single point you want delegates to take away, in no more than 50 words
• Full details for the speaking author: name, organisation, position, country, email address, and a biography up to 150 words
• Name and organisation only for each co-author, up to two

The speaking author is the first author named in the form. Co-authors do not give biographies.

All submissions must be in English. English is the working language of the conference and no interpretation is provided.

The submission form does not save drafts. Write your abstract and biography in a document and paste them into the form. Only use the form. Emailed abstracts will not be accepted.

You may submit more than one abstract. If more than one is selected, you will be asked to choose a single session, as no author will speak in more than one session.

Abstracts must be original to this conference. Work that has been presented at another conference or event, or published elsewhere, will not be accepted for the programme.

Anonymised review

All abstracts are reviewed blind. Your personal and organisational details are collected separately by the submission system and are removed before the abstract reaches the review panel. Reviewers are given the professional background of the author as a category, but never the name or organisation.

For this to work, the abstract itself must not identify you, your co-authors or your organisation. Do not name your firm, your employer or your clients, and do not refer to your own published work in the first person. Abstracts that identify their author may be returned for amendment or excluded.

How abstracts are assessed

Abstracts are assessed without the author’s name or organisation. Author details are restored after scoring, for the industry perspective criterion and for the programme balance rules set out below.

Each abstract is scored by the review panel against the following criteria:

• Originality (25%): whether the argument adds something this audience has not already heard
• Relevance (20%): to the conference theme and to the chosen sub-theme
• International relevance (20%): whether the point travels beyond a single jurisdiction
• Clarity and suitability (20%): a defined argument, grounded in evidence or practice, that will hold an audience of experienced practitioners
• Industry perspective (15%): submissions authored or co-authored by employers, contractors, subcontractors, funders or in-house counsel, or which bring a direct project delivery perspective

Abstracts that promote a firm, a product or a service will be rejected.

In building the final programme, the Content and Programme sub-committee will also take account of the balance of the programme as a whole, including coverage across the four sub-themes, range of jurisdictions and range of professional backgrounds. A strong abstract may be unsuccessful for reasons of balance alone.

To keep the programme broad, no organisation will be represented by more than one speaker across the whole programme, and no session should include more than one delay, quantum or claims consultant. This affects programme building only; there is no limit on the number of submissions from any organisation.

The review panel may place an accepted abstract in a sub-theme other than the one nominated. Where an abstract is strong and addresses a subject the programme needs, it may be accepted and placed in a session built by the sub-committee.

Selection is competitive and is not guaranteed. The review panel selects a limited number of speakers from a large field of experienced practitioners, and many strong abstracts are unsuccessful.

Submissions received after the deadline may be considered at the sole discretion of SCL Serbia.

If your abstract is accepted

By submitting, you agree that if your abstract is accepted:

1. All speaking authors must register for the conference and pay the applicable registration fee by 15 February 2027. Complimentary registration is available only to keynote speakers and sponsors. Acceptance may lapse if registration is not completed by that date.
2. Speaking authors are responsible for their own travel, accommodation and all other costs of attending.
3. You will submit a full paper of between 4,000 and 6,000 words, meeting the requirements in The conference publication below. A paper meeting those requirements is a condition of speaking.
4. You will supply a photograph on request following acceptance. The requirements will be sent with the request.
5. You will take part in person in Belgrade. Remote participation is not available.
6. The speaking author named in the submission will speak. Substitutions require the agreement of the Content and Programme sub-committee, which will not be unreasonably withheld.
7. The Content and Programme sub-committee determines session allocation, format, running order and speaking time.
8. Your contribution must correspond to your accepted abstract. The abstract is what the review panel selected and what was included in the programme. A contribution that departs materially from the abstract may be withdrawn from the programme.
9. No commercial content. Contributions are to inform and engage the audience. Content of a commercial nature is not permitted and no company logos may appear in any material used in the session. Authors may of course identify themselves and their organisation. Sponsorship is the appropriate route for organisations wishing to present their services. Please see the sponsorship opportunities.
10. Permission to discuss the subject matter. You confirm that you are not prevented, by contractual obligation, professional duty, court or tribunal order or otherwise, from discussing the projects, disputes or matters referred to in your abstract. Where clearance is required, you are responsible for obtaining it in writing before the conference. If clearance cannot be obtained, you must confine yourself to matters already on the public record and notify the Content and Programme sub-committee.
11. Deadlines. You agree to meet the deadlines for registration and papers. Failure to meet them may result in withdrawal from the programme.

If your abstract is not selected

Authors whose abstracts are not selected for the conference programme may be invited to submit a full paper for consideration for the conference publication. Invitations will be issued by 15 February 2027, at the discretion of SCL Serbia. Publication in the volume does not require attendance at the conference or registration.

The deadlines are the same as for Conference Papers: a draft paper by 15 April 2027 and a revised paper by 31 July 2027.

The conference publication

Papers will be published in a single edited digital volume with an ISBN, in one sequence, in two categories.

Conference Papers are the papers of selected speakers, submitted under the acceptance conditions above.

Additional Papers are the papers of authors invited under If your abstract is not selected above. They follow the same requirements, process and deadlines as Conference Papers.

What a paper must be. Between 4,000 and 6,000 words, in English, original to this conference and not published elsewhere, written as a paper rather than as speaking notes or presentation slides, with sources cited. Papers are submitted as a Word document. Anonymisation does not apply at this stage; papers carry the author’s name and organisation.

Why papers are due in April. The volume will be edited and reviewed, not simply collected, and it is produced in time to be available to delegates at the conference itself. That requires a full review and revision cycle to be completed over the summer, which is why draft papers are due five months before the conference rather than a few weeks before it.

Papers that do not address the editorial comments, or that are not revised by 31 July 2027, may be excluded from the volume. A document that is not a paper meeting the requirements above does not discharge the obligation in the acceptance conditions. Where a selected speaker does not submit a draft paper by 15 April 2027, or submits one the Editor reports does not meet those requirements, the Content and Programme sub-committee may withdraw them from the programme. A paper submitted and revised in accordance with this section but not included in the volume does not affect the speaking place.

A Best Paper award is judged across the whole volume and announced at the gala dinner.

The volume will be published digitally. It is available to delegates through the conference application from the opening of the conference, and held in the SCL International members’ archive from January 2028. Authors retain copyright in their papers and may republish elsewhere from April 2028.

Terms and consents

The following apply if your abstract is selected for the programme, or if your paper is accepted for the publication. They do not apply to submissions that are neither selected nor invited.

You retain copyright in your paper. The permissions below are a licence, not a transfer. These permissions form part of the terms on which a place on the programme is offered and a paper is accepted for publication, and SCL Serbia relies on them for the conference record and the published volume.

You agree that SCL Serbia may use, and permit its conference organiser and suppliers to use, for the purposes of the conference and its publication:

1. Your name, organisation, position, country and biography, in the conference programme, on scli2027.org, in the publication and in promotional material for the conference
2. Any photograph you supply, for the same purposes, including in modified or cropped form
3. Your abstract title, text and biography, on scli2027.org, in the conference programme and materials and in promotional material for the conference
4. Your paper, in the conference materials and application, in the published volume, and in the SCL International members’ archive from January 2028
5. Recordings and photographs of your session made at the conference

Your personal data. SCL Serbia is the controller of your personal data and processes it only for the purposes of this conference and its publication. The conference organiser appointed by SCL Serbia, and the suppliers needed to run the conference, its website, registration and publication, process it on SCL Serbia’s instructions. You also agree to be contacted by SCL Serbia and its conference organiser in connection with this conference.

You may withdraw consent to the use of your photograph at any time by writing to scli2027@miross.rs. Withdrawal does not affect material already published or distributed, or the record of the conference itself. Your rights, and how long your data is kept, are set out in the conference privacy policy.

Key dates

• 1 September 2026: Call for abstracts opens
• 15 December 2026: Abstract deadline (23:59 CET)
• 29 January 2027: Authors notified
• 1 February 2027: Full programme and speakers published
• 15 February 2027: Deadline for accepted speaking authors to register and pay
• 15 April 2027: Draft papers due
• 15 June 2027: Editorial comments returned to authors
• 31 July 2027: Revised papers due
• 15 August 2027: Final editorial review and confirmation of inclusion in the volume
• 29 September 2027: Conference opens

How to submit

Contact

scli2027@scl-serbia.org