CIB is pleased to announce the publication of Law and Dispute Resolution in the Built Environment: A CIB Research Roadmap (2025–2040) produced by Working Commission W113 Law and Dispute Resolution. The publication sets out a long-term vision for advancing research, policy, and practice in construction law and dispute resolution, responding to emerging challenges and opportunities across the global built environment sector.
The roadmap identifies a need to move beyond fragmented and reactive approaches to dispute management towards more integrated, preventive, and sustainability-aligned systems that strengthen trust, efficiency, and access to justice. It explores how legal reform, digital innovation, ethics, and ESG considerations can be brought together to support fairer and more resilient dispute-resolution frameworks.
” The CIB W113 Research Roadmap provides an important opportunity to set a clear international direction for construction law and dispute resolution. It brings together more than a decade of research while looking ahead to how digitalisation, AI, sustainability and changing professional practice will reshape the field. I hope the roadmap will provide a platform for researchers, practitioners and policymakers to collaborate on fairer, more effective and more resilient approaches to preventing and resolving disputes across the global built environment.”
Andrew Agapiou, Co-coordinator, W113 working commission law and dispute resolution.
Six strategic research themes underpin the roadmap:
- Legal Design and Preventive Dispute Management
- Comparative and Transnational Construction Law
- Digital Justice, AI, and Data Governance
- Sustainability, Environmental Social and Governance (ESG), and Legal Accountability
- Professional Capacity, Ethics, and Interdisciplinary Competence
- Metrics, Evidence, and System Evaluation
The roadmap also outlines implementation pathways focused on research collaboration, professional development, digital innovation, policy engagement, and continuous learning, ensuring that future research delivers practical value for industry, policymakers, and society.
Developed through international collaboration within the CIB network, the roadmap provides a foundation for future research initiatives, partnerships, and knowledge exchange activities. It reinforces W113’s commitment to supporting fair, transparent, and sustainable systems of dispute resolution in the built environment.
Download Law and Dispute Resolution in the Built Environment: A CIB Research Roadmap (2025–2040).
