The idea for this book was born out of the belief that the increasing dissemination of FIDIC forms of contract throughout the Civil Law world requires a different approach to the subject matter than that which is found under the Common Law. An English native speaker will naturally not encounter many difficulties when reading the FIDIC forms, although of course the wording used will sometimes be subject to interpretation. Again an English native speaker will usually be familiar with the underlying legal principles, which mostly derive from Common Law, despite the fact that some Civil Law-inspired features have been incorporated in the FIDIC books. Thus there is a clear need to explain Common Law concepts and legal terms in the context of Civil Law. This may often prove to be difficult as the very nature of Civil Law language is in many respects different from Common Law language. Both systems have terms which are often difficult to translate literally because of the fact that the terms reflect legal concepts which are unknown in the other legal world.本书的构思源于这样一种信念，即随着FIDIC合同形式在整个大陆法系世界的日益普及，对合同标的物的处理方式需要与普通法不同的方法。以英语为母语的人在阅读FIDIC表格时自然不会遇到很多困难，当然，所使用的措辞有时会受到解释。再说一次，英语为母语的人通常会熟悉基本的法律原则，这些原则大多来源于普通法，尽管事实上一些受民法启发的特点已经被纳入了菲迪克的书中。因此，显然有必要在民法背景下解释普通法概念和法律术语。这可能常常被证明是困难的，因为民法语言的本质在许多方面不同于普通法语言。这两种制度都有术语，这些术语通常很难从字面上翻译，因为这些术语反映了在其他法律世界中未知的法律概念。