Earlier this yr, I had some very fascinating conversations with Bristol colleagues in regards to the relationship between regulation, regulation, and the general public curiosity. These conversations led to a collection of weblog posts which are being printed in our Legislation College weblog.
This prompted me to suppose a bit extra intimately about how the general public curiosity is articulated in public procurement regulation and coverage. Finally, I wrote this draft paper primarily based on the assessment of procurement targets embedded within the UK’s new Procurement Act 2023, which can enter into drive subsequent month (on 28 October 2023).
I introduced the paper on the SLS convention as we speak (the slides can be found right here) and had some preliminary optimistic suggestions. I’m now sharing the complete draft to see if it spurs broader dialogue.
As at all times, feedback warmly welcome: a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk. The paper might be freely downloaded from SSRN and its summary is as follows:
On this paper, I discover the notion of public curiosity embedded within the Procurement Act 2023. I take advantage of this new piece of laws as a recent instance of the issue in designing a ‘public curiosity centred’ system of public procurement regulation. I present how a mixture of specific, referential, and implicit public curiosity targets ends in a scenario the place there are a number of sources of targets contracting authorities want to contemplate of their decision-making, however there is no such thing as a prioritisation of sources or targets. I additionally present that, regardless of this proliferation of sources and targets and as a result of unavailability of efficient technique of judicial problem or administrative oversight, contracting authorities retain nearly limitless discretion to form the general public curiosity and ‘what it appears like’ in relation to the award of every public contract. I conclude with a mirrored image the necessity to rethink the methods during which public procurement can foster the general public curiosity, in gentle of its limitations as a regulatory device.
Sanchez-Graells, Albert, The Procurement Act 2023’s Kaleidoscopic View of the Public Curiosity (August 02, 2024). Out there at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/summary=4945411.
