ASSESSING LEGAL RISK MANAGEMENT, CONTRACTUAL GOVERNANCE, AND SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES IN LARGE-SCALE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE BUILDING PROJECTS

Large-scale building projects constitute the most legally complex, financially exposed, and governance-intensive undertakings in the construction industry, presenting distinctive challenges in the management of legal risk, contractual governance, and sustainability obligations. This study conducts a comprehensive empirical assessment of legal risk management frameworks, contractual governance structures, and sustainable construction practice integration in large-scale public and private building projects across twelve jurisdictions. Employing a mixed-methods design integrating structured questionnaire surveys (n = 368), semi-structured expert interviews (n = 42), and contractual documentation analysis (n = 124 contracts), the investigation reveals that only 38.7% of large-scale projects in the study sample demonstrated comprehensive legal risk management frameworks, while contractual governance adequacy averaged 67.4 out of 100 across project types. Sustainable construction practice adoption exhibited significant variation between public projects (62.4%) and private projects (54.7%), with the adoption gap widening in emerging economy jurisdictions. Regression analysis identified proactive legal risk register usage (β = 0.584, p < 0.001), contractual governance score (β = 0.537, p < 0.001), and sustainability management plan quality (β = 0.461, p < 0.001) as the primary determinants of project performance outcomes. The study introduces the Contractual Governance-Sustainability-Risk (CGSR) integration model as an original theoretical contribution and advances twelve evidence-based recommendations for improving legal risk management, contractual governance, and sustainability performance in large-scale building project delivery.