Early-stage risk assessments in construction projects should be reconceptualized as epistemological instruments that do more than predict future disruptions, they actively construct the intellectual and ethical terrain upon which the project unfolds. By framing what is knowable, negotiable, and preventable, these assessments become cognitive blueprints that define the relational architecture among stakeholders. In the context of dispute prevention, their true power lies in transforming risk from a technical abstraction into a shared narrative of accountability and foresight. When stakeholders are invited into the process as co-authors of this narrative, trust becomes not an outcome but a condition of participation, and ethical decision-making emerges organically from a mutual sense of stewardship. Rather than a static checklist, the early risk assessment becomes a living dialogue, one that embeds obligation into planning and makes conflict less likely by making understanding more likely.