Sustainable Public Procurement Through Private Law Enforcement - Launching Seminar

On the 9th September 2022, the Purchase Power – Sustainable Public Procurement Through Private Law Enforcement PurpLE project was launched with an international seminar introducing the project's main themes at the Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen. Public procurement professionals (scholars, lawyers, and practitioners) from Denmark and from around Europe gathered to hear more about the PurpLE project and give their feedback on the planned scope of the research that will be thoroughly researched during the next three years. The project team is led by associate professor Marta Andhov and includes Olga Giakouminaki (postdoc), Michał Kania (Senior Researcher), Désirée Klingler (postdoc) and Sven Mikulic (student assistant) The project has been funded by Carlsberg Foundation and runs from September 1, 2022 for 3 years at the Center for Private Governance, Faculty of Law, University of Copenhagen.

In the PurpLE project, we are researching the tension between public procurement and private law, focusing on the following research questions:

1) How does public procurement law impact the interpretation of contract law?

2) Can private law limit the outcome of public procurement law and, if so, how?

3) What does this complex interaction between public procurement and private law mean for achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda?

My main role in the project will be to investigate the research question of "how and why selected contract law constructions are modified by public procurement law". 

One of the aspects of the potential point of reference of the planned research is the contract regulations contained in the Model law - Draft Common Frame of References, as well as contract regulations in the selected national legal jurisdictions. The research question refers to the context of the current challenges of the post-pandemic period and the war in Ukraine. Both events have significantly affected the economic situation, including the performance of public procurement contracts. Problems that arise in this context include, among others: labour shortages, interruptions in supply chains, price increases, and limited availability of products. Rising energy prices and inflation are the latest challenges for contracting authorities and contractors. Indicted challenges often result in the need for modification or termination of public procurement contracts. They also affect the liability issues of the contracting parties. Moreover, the current geopolitical situation results in the adoption of several new legal solutions at the EU's level. These administrative regulations limit the freedom of contracting authorities to contract by excluding specific categories of entities from the circle of potential contractors. The current crises result in the questions of how their effects should be legally classified in the context of such legal constructs as the contract law clauses of rebus sic stantibus and force majeure. What should be the understanding of these clauses regarding the concept of" unforeseeable situations" referred to in Article 72(1)(c) of the Directive 2014/24/EU? Does the current public contracts regulation fit its purpose, or should it be extended toward classical contract law principles? What is the contemporary (COVID-19, war in Ukraine) standard of diligent contracting authority? What should be the extent of interference of public law regulations in the freedom of contracting in public procurement?

Public procurement and innovation. Is defence different? Conversation with Dr Oishee Kundu (Cardiff University)

Institute of Law at the University of Silesia in Katowice invites you to participate in a 60 minutes conversation with Dr Oishee Kundu (Cardiff University) about the role of innovation in public procurement, similarities and differences with the defence sector.

Date: Wednesday, January 19, 2022 14.00 CET/ 8.00 AM, ET

Speaker: Dr Oishee Kundu - Research Associate at Cardiff University, supporting the Innovative Future Services program within Y Lab, the public services innovation lab in Wales. She is a founding member of CRISPP, a collaborative network of researchers in Manchester and Birmingham investigating innovative and strategic public procurement in the UK.

Her doctoral project ''Public procurement and innovation: is defence different?'' explores the assumptions about defence procurement and examines them within the empirical context of four recent public procurement projects in the UK (two defence projects, and two ‘civilian’ public transport projects). She worked under the supervision of Prof Andrew James and Dr John Rigby at the University of Manchester. The thesis was examined by Prof Nick Vonortas (The George Washington University) and Prof Jakob Edler (University of Manchester, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research) in March 2021. 

In her presentation, Dr Kundu will briefly recount the research which was conducted, describing the dimensions along which defence and civilian procurement were compared (the framework), the different sources of data and research methods used (mainly text analysis), and the findings.

Host: Michał Kania (Professor at the University of Silesia, Poland)

Registration

The Public procurement role in the achievement of the Polish National Recovery Plan aims

In the latest issue of The European Journal of Accounting, Finance & Business, I had the opportunity to discuss the problems relating to the critical role of public procurement if Poland is awarded funds from the European Reconstruction Fund. While preparing this article in July, I hoped that it would not be merely theoretical.

I still hope so...

Article available here: European Journal of Accounting, Finance & Business

Public procurement in the European Judical Review

The 7th issue of the European Judicial Review has been entirely devoted to issues related to public procurement. The issue has been realesed with the contribution of the Polish Public Procurement Association. Among the authors: Aldona Kowalczyk, prof. Aleksandra Sołtysińska, dr Wojciech Hartung, Katarzyna Kuźma, prof. Marta Andhov, Mirella Lechna-Marchewka, Anna Szymańska, prof. Piotr Bogdanowicz, Jarosław Jerzykowski, dr Jarosław Kola,  Anna Specht-Schampera, Tomasz Dąbrowski, and prof. Michał Kania.

Issues discussed include: the institution of self-cleaning in public procurement, grounds for exclusion from a public procurement procedure, the framework agreement in European public procurement law, cancellation of a public procurement contract due to violation of the standstill period, termination of a procurement contract by mutual agreement of the parties, the remuneration of a public contract and the examination of an abnormally low price, the restrictive approach to the exclusion of the application of EU public procurement law in the broad sense of in-house procurement, the impact of the White Paper on the leveling of foreign subsidies on public procurement markets.

More to read:EJR

Success of the Faculty of Law and Administration (University of Silesia) Team in the Moot Court "Legal representation before the National Appeal Chamber''

On 21 May 2021 the team of the University of Silesia in Katowice took part in the final round of the second edition of the Moot Court tournament "Legal representation before the National Chamber of Appeal (KIO)". The competition was organized by the Public Procurement Law Association. Honorary patronage over the II edition of the tournament took Hubert Nowak - President of the Polish Public Procurement Office.

The tournament consisted in the simulation of proceedings before the KIO based on the case studies related to the problems of the course of proceedings for the award of public procurement in accordance with the provisions of the new Public Procurement Law of 11 September 2019. In December 2020, preparations for the competition under the supervision of PhD candidate Aleksandra Klefas, and professor Michał Kania, began with a six-person team composed of: Konrad Lach, Piotr Lach, Artur Tyński, Paulina Wójcik, Wojciech Wydmański, Marta Zdunek.

The preparations included a series of 10 seminars devoted to new public procurement law regulations and meetings with practitioners: Agnieszka Piwowarczyk, PhD, Robert Zugaj, attorney, and KIO member Katarzyna Poprawa. The university stage ended with a test of knowledge about public procurement. Piotr Lach, Paulina Wójcik and Marta Zdunek qualified to the final stage.

The representation of the University of Silesia drew the role of the Appellant. Its task was to lead to the repeal of unfavorable for the client provisions of the terms and conditions of the contract prepared by the Employer, which limited access to participate in the procedure. In the final of the competition, which took place in Warsaw, the University of Silesia team won the second place.