Our Last Issue

After six years, this is our last issue of the legal affairs section in this Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice. Next year we will be transitioning to our own independent journal, the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction, becoming the 31st journal of ASCE.

We have enjoyed being a part of Professional Issues all these years and are indeed indebted to that journal for housing us. Our profound thanks are extended to the Board Publications Committee, Editor Emeritus Brian Brenner, and former Director of Journals Johanna Reinhart for starting us off in the Journal of Professional Issues. We have seen ourselves grow step by step with each passing year. Of course, our primary gratitude is to the authors, who felt impelled to write on legal affairs and dispute resolution, since without them there could be no journal. I am also immensely grateful to those who have been our corresponding editors for these past few years—Richard Allen, Hazel Beh, Evan Caplicki, Sai On Cheung, Mike Loulakis, Paul Lurie, Robert Rubin, and Justin Sweet—for they are our real backbone. We hope to continue to serve multiple constituents from our new position: authors, readers, practitioners, CEOs, owners, engineers, and contract administrators.

In these six years ( $5.75\text{years}$ to be precise!), we have published 127 articles, including seven special issues. Our sincerest thanks extend to the guest editors who focused on multiple legal issues, thus exhibiting the wide variety of topics in legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction. To acknowledge their contribution, a list of all special issues published follows in Table 1.

Legal affairs and dispute resolution has become a pervasive topic that has seeped into engineering design and consulting from construction. No more can we hope for a successful project and effective design without some use of legal affairs and dispute resolution. Indeed, a subject that was once thought distant from engineering education is entering its mainstream. Disputes are everywhere. However, it is probably infinitely easier to start a dispute than resolve one. Thus, our engineers must now learn how to relate effectively to business and contracting groups from a legalistic perspective, in contrast to simply being experts with formulas. The entire force of law has been seen applied in the business that engineers engage in.

The nature of law and justice in its applications to engineering and construction has been investigated around the world through many perspectives—such as philosophy, morality, reason, religion, social, and economic. In all, a due emphasis is on fairness in the eyes of the contracting parties, the bargainers. Nevertheless, much too much money for engineering and construction projects has been consumed in disputes and litigation. As an evolving society, we have to do much better in resolving our conflicts and disputes.

The Citizen’s Compendium defines law as a

“system of rules,” as “any system of regulations to govern the conduct of the people of a community, society or nation,” as an “interpretive concept” to achieve justice, as an “authority” to mediate people’s interests, and even as “the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction.”

Hence, we know that law shapes our modern life in numerous activities from business to private in which individuals are engaged. Law molds our society, the way we trade, and how we engage in politics. From renting a home to demanding social freedom, we are governed by laws. At times, humans may wish to be absolutely free, but I find not only an impossibility there, but also dangers. It was Aristotle who wrote, “the rule of law is better than the rule of any individual.” If we left everything to the individual, wouldn’t every individual be king?

As a heads up for our new, upcoming journal, our articles on legal affairs and dispute resolution will be international in scope. Hence, we will accept articles and commentaries from around the world, whatever the laws of their land. In fact, we realize that law in different jurisdictions is interpreted differently, even in the United States, and that customs and procedures vary. These differences will be welcomed in our new journal. So long as the article is well rooted in the legal principles of the land or has sound grounding in jurisprudence, it will be considered an asset to enhancing the application of legal principles to contract administration.

We hope you have enjoyed reading articles in our legal affairs section, much as we continue our search for more interesting articles for you. We hope you will continue your interest in our new journal, scheduled for launch in February 2009. Share your ideas and perceptions with us—send a letter to the editor. Much as we close one chapter in 2008 with the Journal of Professional Issues, we look forward to the beginning of a new one in 2009 with the Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution.