Articulating the general public curiosity in procurement legislation and coverage — How one can Crack a Nut – Cyber Tech

Earlier this 12 months, I had some very fascinating conversations with Bristol colleagues concerning the relationship between legislation, regulation, and the general public curiosity. These conversations led to a sequence of weblog posts which are being revealed in our Legislation Faculty weblog.

This prompted me to suppose a bit extra intimately about how the general public curiosity is articulated in public procurement legislation and coverage. Ultimately, I wrote this draft paper based mostly on the evaluate of procurement objectives embedded within the UK’s new Procurement Act 2023, which can enter into pressure subsequent month (on 28 October 2023).

I introduced the paper on the SLS convention at this time (the slides can be found right here) and had some preliminary constructive suggestions. I’m now sharing the total draft to see if it spurs broader dialogue.

As at all times, feedback warmly welcome: a.sanchez-graells@bristol.ac.uk. The paper will 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 exploit 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 express, 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 because of the 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 seems 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 mild of its limitations as a regulatory device.

Sanchez-Graells, Albert, The Procurement Act 2023’s Kaleidoscopic View of the Public Curiosity (August 02, 2024). Obtainable at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/summary=4945411.