Bridging the gap: Reintegrating legal perspectives into project management

Abstract

While legal topics have been acknowledged by project management academics, scholarly engagement between project management and the law needs to be further developed. This paper examines the intersection of law and project management addressing the growing complexity and multifaceted nature of contemporary projects and their impacts on society. It starts by reviewing previous project management research that has considered legal themes, such as contracts, delivery, disputes, governance, procurement and compliance. Subsequently, the importance of the context of the project is also briefly considered, with a recognition of its influence on the nature and resolution of legal disputes within projects and emerging themes. Then the legal foundation of projects is explored and the concept of legal projects and portfolios is proposed. The paper concludes by inviting the interdisciplinary research community to establish a new line of inquiry that explores the legal dimensions of project management and how project management can influence the legal profession and research.