Construction Law : Contracts, Risks and Regulations 2nd Edition

The textbook Construction Law: Contracts, Risks and Regulations is written for associate, undergraduate or graduate level students of construction management and closely related design and engineering disciplines; design, engineering and construction practitioners; and their built-environment educators. The topics that it addresses respond to the student learning outcomes of the American Council for Construction Education [ACCE]. It is arranged into nineteen chapters in three parts covering contracts, risks, and regulations. Subject matter has been broken down to fit a flipped classroom pedagogical model. Case studies, various classroom activities and formative assessment techniques reinforce and elaborate upon this subject matter. From 38 to 40 hours of classroom contact hours are recommended.
Chapter 1 explains fundamental axioms of construction contract law, axioms that come to the forefront particularly with verbal contracts, inchoate contracts and upon the application of the law of remedies. Twelve chapters focus upon explaining the fundamental principles of written construction contracts. The topical content of these chapters correspond with the principal articles of the American Institute of Architect’s AIA A201-2007 General Conditions of the Contract for Construction, ConsensusDocs™ 200 Standard Agreement and General Conditions Between Owner and Constructor (2011), and the Engineers Joint Contract Documents Committee’s EJCDC C-700 Standard General Conditions of the Construction Contract (2007) These ‘standard form’ chapters are, as follows:
2. Written Construction Contract Form and Substance;
3. Payments and Performance;
4. Concealed or Unknown Conditions;
5. Changes;
6. Time;
7. Interpreting the Contract Documents;
8. Suspension and Termination;
9. Assurance;
10. Claims and Dispute Resolution;
12. Subcontractors’ Protections and Vulnerabilities;
14. Construction Insurance; and
15. Surety Bonds
Part I, consisting of the first ten chapters, focuses upon the construction contract between the owner and the general contractor. The focus of Part II is more expansive.  Endeavoring to provide the student with a basic understanding of risk, Part II examines bidding on public projects; subcontractor protections and vulnerabilities; ethical considerations for constructors; construction insurance; and surety bonds:
Chapter 11, Bidding on Public Projects, introduces the Federal Acquisition Regulations. Bidding processes are a precursor to contract formation. The bidding processes and contractual clauses specified by the FAR have become ubiquitous in the field of public agency procurement. They also inform bid processes, the standard form construction contracts, and the general conditions that are employed in private contracting.
Chapter 12, Subcontractor Protections and Vulnerabilities, discusses the unique contributions of subcontractors and suppliers to the building process; the contractual forms and statutory provisions that govern the relationships between contractors, subcontractors and their suppliers; and the contours of the particular circumstances of subcontractors and suppliers, including the influence of the owner, their relationship with the general contractor, and bargaining disparity. It introduces the flow-thru clause, the pay-when-paid clause, and mechanics’ lien laws.
Chapter 13, Ethical Considerations for Constructors, explains the elements of a written code of ethics, with particular emphasis upon antitrust law violations. Legal principles and ethical considerations are introduced that relate to irrevocable subcontractor bids, bid shopping, bid peddling and reverse bid auctions.
Chapter14, Construction Insurance explains negligence, the common construction insurance products, the legal principles that govern insurance transactions, and the common contractual risk allocations. 
Chapter 15, Surety Bonds, explains the common construction surety bonds and the risks that contractors assume through indemnification agreements.

Biography
Gregory F. Starzyk is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Kerogen Systems, Inc. (KSI) and Professor Emeritus of Construction Management in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Starzyk holds a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Taft University, Sant Ana, CA; a Master of Project Management (MPM) from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (BSCE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 
Starzyk began his career by gaining 10 years of experience as a union-trained apprentice carpenter and Chicago-area contractor. Then after earning a BSCE he gained 23 years of international experience in the engineering and construction project management of refining and petrochemical process plants, modular systems business management, and global planning, with UOP, a research and engineering company that is now Honeywell-UOP a subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc. Starzyk then leveraged his trade and industry experiences into what became 16 years of higher education teaching activity where his scholarly interests covered the intersections of construction law with the interdisciplinary domains of project, design, and program management. After retiring from Cal Poly, Starzyk soon joined KSI, a startup company founded by former Honeywell-UOP colleagues to commercialize patented technology for producing climate-friendly petrochemicals that elude the greenhouse gas emissions of crude oil-based petrochemicals production.
Starzyk has written numerous, peer-reviewed academic papers and has authored and published two textbooks that have been adopted by universities nationwide: Construction Law: Contracts, Risks and Regulations; and the Construction Law Casebook.