Building Information Modeling (BIM) has entered into another phase of maturity, especially in countries that have been actively adopting and using BIM including in the Republic of China, Taiwan. An effective management in BIM has increasingly becoming one of the demanding features in Taiwanese architecture, engineering, construction and operation industries, particularly in dealing with the legal issues associated with BIM implementation. Therefore, the research aims to develop a preliminary contractual framework for BIM-based contract administration. Two objectives underpin the research, namely: (a) to identify the potential legal aspects need to be considered in BIM-enabled projects; and (b) to determine the related contract provisions required in BIM contracts. Questionnaire survey method was adopted through a selective sampling approach in Taiwan. Thirty-six valid and completed questionnaires were analyzed. The results identify twenty-one related contract provisions that could potentially be used in BIM contracts. Following a thorough analytical discussion, these contract provisions were then incorporated into the developed contractual framework. Whilst paving the way for a robust contractual mechanism for BIM-enabled projects in the future, the research contributes into the body-of-knowledge for BIM-based contract administration.

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Although there are many discussions of the legal implications of BIM, none of the studies provides a comprehensive review of the legal issues associated with BIM; nor do they evaluate the solutions currently available to address the issues. This paper aims to provide a critical review of the legal issues arising from using BIM and of their associated solutions. A systematic review was conducted of fifty-five (55) journal articles and conference papers published from 2007 to 2017 to identify the legal issues. The identified legal issues were then analysed in relation to the solutions provided by the construction industry. The results of the study revealed that (1) an alternative project delivery approach that does not modify the original orientation of the design-bid-build procurement structure is required to deliver BIM effectively. (2) The potential change in the standard of care for project participants due to additional roles required in delivering BIM needs further investigation. (3) The roles for auditing a BIM delivery system must be included in the contracts to ensure the quality and compliance of BIM deliverables. The study not only reviews the legal issues associated with BIM, but more importantly, it also offers significant insights for future research.

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