Recommendation of professor Alexandra Harrington's new book: International Law and Global Governance Treaty Regimes and Sustainable Development Goals Implementation

Prof. Alexandra Harrington is the Director of Studies for the International Law Association Colombian branch, a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development, and an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. She also provides guest lectures globally on topics related to international law, environmental law, global governance and sustainable development.

Prof. Harrington has served as a consultant for entities such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and UN Environment. Prof. Harrington’s publications address a variety of fields relating to international law, including environmental law, legal issues relating to climate change, natural resources regulation, international organizations, international human rights law, international child’s rights, international trade law, corporate social responsibility, and criminal law. Prof. Harrington routinely presents her works at domestic and international conferences.

International Law and Global Governance

This book explores the methods through which international law and its associated innovative global governance mechanisms can strengthen, foster and scale up the impacts of treaty regimes and international law on the ability to implement global governance mechanisms.

Examining these questions through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the book looks at environmental, social and economic treaty regimes. It analyses legal methodologies as well as comparative methods of assessing the relationship between the SDGs and treaty regimes and international law. Contradictions exist between international treaty regimes and principles of international law resulting in conflicting implementation of the treaty regimes and of global governance mechanisms. Without determining these areas of contest and highlighting their detrimental impacts, the SDGs and other efforts at global governance cannot maximize their legal and societal benefits.

The book concludes by suggesting a path forward for the SDGs and for international treaty regimes that is forged in a solid understanding and application of the advantages of global governance mechanisms, including reflections from the COVID-19 pandemic experience. Addressing the strengths, gaps and weaknesses related to treaty regimes and global governance mechanisms, the book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of this increasingly important topic. It will be of interest to students, researchers and practitioners with an interest in sustainability and law.

Webinar: Green Transition in Public Procurement, 30 March 2021

Please join the free webinar on Green Transition in Public Procurement.

The webinar is organized by the Polish Public Procurement Law Association stowarzyszeniepzp.pl

Tuesday, 30 March 2021 - 11.00 - 12.30 

Agenda:

11.05 Welcome on behalf of the Public Procurement Law Association 

11.10 - 11.25 EU provisions and case law on GPP

Associate professor, Dr Marta Andhov University of Copenhagen

Marta Andhov is an associate professor in public procurement law at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law. Her main research interests focus on sustainability and governmental contracts. She is a co-host of the Bestek Public Procurement Podcast, a steering committee member of the Horizon 2020 project the Sustainability and Procurement in International, European, and National Systems (SAPIENS). In the past, Marta has provided her insight and expertise to key research projects for the European Commission, Danish Institute for Human Rights and multiple organisations and national procurement agencies. She is a well established and respected authority in sustainable public procurement with a vast publication list in leading journals and publishing houses. Her 2019 co-edited book, Cost and EU Public Procurement Law – Life-Cycle Costing for Sustainability, contributes to developing life-cycle criteria tools and public procurement methodologies in the EU. It includes both sector-crossing contributions, analysing the most relevant theoretical and legal aspects such as EU law and contract theory, and sector-specific contributions to some of the most important sustainable goods and services markets.

11.25 - 11.40 What's on the horizon? The Future of Green Public Procurement requirements in the EU

Assistant professor, Dr Willem Janssen, Utrecht University

Willem A. Janssen is an Assistant Professor in European and Dutch Public Procurement Law at the law department of Utrecht University, and a researcher at the Centre for Public Procurement and RENFORCE. In addition to his monologue ‘EU Public Procurement Law & Self- organisation’, he has published extensively in international and Dutch academic journals on pressing issues related to cooperation, sustainability, and societal value in the context of Dutch and EU public procurement law. Having been a visiting fellow at George Washington University, he is currently a visiting fellow at Copenhagen University in 2020-2021 and guest lectures at various universities and public institutions. He hosts Bestek – the Public Procurement Podcast, actively contributes to the public debate through various blogs and columns and aims to improve public procurement law and practice through his academic work.

11.40 - 11.55 Interpretation of the link to the subject matter of the contract in practice

Dr Abby Semple Public Procurement Analysis / Greenville Procurement Partners

Abby Semple, LL.B., Ph.D. is a consultant advising public bodies on strategic and legal aspects of procurement. Her main focus is on the environmental and social impact of public contracts and how these can be meaningfully addressed through the contracting process. Through her consultancy Public Procurement Analysis, Abby has managed complex tenders on behalf of public sector clients in Ireland and the UK, and developed policy and guidance at the EU level and in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States. Her writing and speaking engages with academic and practitioner audiences, including over 80 presentations and training sessions throughout Europe and the world. Abby is the author of one of the first books on the 2014 EU Procurement Directives A Practical Guide to Public Procurement, published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Her academic writing on topics including living wages and citizen participation in public contracts can be accessed on SSRN.

11.55 – 12.10 What is the Status Quo of GPP in Poland?

Professor Michal Kania, University of Silesia

12.10 - 12.30 Discussion

Webinar's link

ADR in the new Polish Public Procurement Law

On March 16, 9:00-11:00 a.m. I will have the pleasure to participate in the 8th National Conference on Public Procurement on the topic: The new public procurement law - consequences and difficulties of implementation.

During my presentation I will address issues concerning new Polish regulation on ADR in public procurement contracts disputes. Contracts on public procurement regardless of their classification as civil law contracts, public law contracts, or mixed contracts have an important common feature. They give rise to disputes of an economic nature, the resolution of which usually takes place in the course of proceedings before judicial bodies. These disputes not only have negative consequences for the parties to the agreement - the contracting authority and the contractor - but also for the beneficiaries of some of the tasks carried out through public procurement. We are talking here above all about infrastructure investments implemented on the basis of public procurement. Saving time, continuing to carry out public procurement in accordance with previously agreed assumptions, as well as strengthening relations between the public and private sectors, justify a broader turn towards alternative methods of resolving and settling disputes that arise in connection with public procurement contracts.

It seems that this approach has been eventualy recognized by the Polish legislator in the new Act of 11 September 2019 Public Procurement Law. The legislator decided to introduce expressis verbis into the new law regulating the public procurement market in Poland solutions based on the so-called Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods. These methods are widely used in public procurement in countries such as the United States, where ADR appeared in the 1970s. ADR enjoys great popularity also in the countries of Western Europe, including Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain or France.

The regulation contained in art. 591 - 594 of the new Polish Public Procurement Law provides explicitly the possibility of using out-of-court methods of resolving disputes arising from the performance of contracts in public procurement matters. These methods in practice include mediation and conciliation.

Mediation is an attempt to reach an amicable solution to a dispute to the satisfaction of the parties through voluntary negotiations conducted with the participation of a third party who is neutral towards the parties and their conflict, i.e. a mediator. The mediator is neutral, impartial, supports the negotiations, relieves tension and assists the parties in reaching a mutually satisfactory agreement and final settlement. Conciliation, on the other hand, is the examination of a dispute by an independent conciliator or a special conciliation commission (permanent or ad hoc), who will propose solutions that are acceptable to the parties to the dispute or that allow them to work out their own solution to the dispute. The parties to the conciliation procedure are not bound by the settlement proposal submitted to them and the choice of solution always rests with the parties to the dispute, while the conciliators are responsible for drawing up the final agreement (settlement).

Location of the basic provisions on out-of-court dispute resolution in the new Public Procurement Law allows us to assume that the intention of the legislator was to promote ADR in public procurement and to increase the number of settlements concluded against the background of contracts in public procurement matters. The construction of section X of the act, its title "dispute resolution" and the reference to art. 54a of the act on public finance, where the outcome of a settlement is said to be more favorable than the likely outcome of court or arbitration proceedings, indicates that the solutions contained de lege lata in the Public Procurement Law refer to mediation and conciliation proceedings. The broader concept of amicable dispute resolution includes arbitration, whose admissibility in the context of contracts in matters of public procurement results lege iuris from Art. 1154 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

It is worth pointing out several advantages of alternative methods of dispute resolution, which also apply to Polish public procurement disputes. First, ADR makes it possible to resolve commercial cases much more quickly than ordinary courts. The speed of the settlement (resolution) of a dispute should be in the interest of each of the parties to economic relations guided by the principle of effectiveness. For that reason, among others, it should also be important for the ordering parties, as defined in the Public Procurement Law.

Secondly, ADR in its assumption is connected with professionalization of entities conducting the proceedings. Neutral mediators, conciliators and arbitrators conducting arbitration proceedings should have appropriate qualifications, as well as experience in the scope of cases to be resolved. The courts of general jurisdiction do not always guarantee the appropriate level of knowledge of persons resolving disputes arising from public procurement contracts.

Third, above all with regard to mediation, it is pointed out that it replaces a situation of conflict with a consensual solution, which should foster proper relations between the parties in the future. The solution adopted by the parties assumes a voluntary and mutually satisfactory conclusion of the dispute, based on the win-win principle, and moving away from the winner-loser relationship.

Fourth, ADR seems to be of particular importance in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to the de facto temporary shutdown of common courts in the first phase of the lockdown, the growing number of cases led to significant dysfunction in the processing of disputes, which translates into a dysfunction of the entire economic turnover. The congestion in the ordinary courts has led to another prolongation of business disputes. An alternative to achieving a state of legal certainty during and after the pandemic may therefore be methods categorized as ADR.

A broader study on ADR in the new Public Procurement Law will appear in the next issue of the Public Procurement Journal C.H.Beck

PPP – Perspectives for 2021 - Conversation with David Baxter

Please join the 60 minute conversation with David Baxter about the challenges and opportunities concerning public - private partnerships in 2021. We will be discussing issues related to the current state of the PPP in certain regions of the world (USA, Africa, Europe), the role of PPP in the support of sustainable projects, the competition or coexistance between PPP and EU funds in Europe, will be looking into the lessons learned from Covid-19 pandemic and much more.

David Baxter - is a senior adviser to the International Sustainable and Resilience Center, Member of Steering Committee in the World Association of PPP Units & Professionals, independent consultant to governments, development agencies and institutions, and consulting companies around the world in the areas of ethical governance, procurement, PPP policy and practice, concession planning, and sustainable and resilient development planning.

David has deep relationships with several International Development Institutions including: The World Bank, UNECE in Geneva, USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Inter American Development Bank, and more.

ISRC founded in 2018 is one of 8 International PPP Specialist Centers of Excellence under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe International PPP Centre of Excellence (UNECE-ICoE). 

WAPPP is a Geneva-based, global, independent non-governmental organization. It aims to establish an international network of PPP units and PPP practitioners (both corporate and individual, public and private) involved in the design and implementation of PPP policies, initiatives, programs, and projects. By coming together, these industry players can create a win-win situation that benefits themselves and society. WAPPP members can share their experiences, help set industry standards, lobby for best practices, and generally network to find jobs, contracts, investors, and opportunities.

Registration: Conversation with David Baxter

People First PPP - Value for People, Value for future

On 15 December 2020 UNECE issued methodology to evaluate the sustainability of infrastructure projects by usage of PPP. UNECE People-first PPP Evaluation Methodology for the Sustainable Development Goals shall support efforts by providing a set of benchmarks and indicators to score infrastructure projects against the People-first criteria and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). People-first PPPs are defined in the Guiding Principles and are summarised according to five specific outcomes: access and equity; economic effectiveness and fiscal sustainability; replicability; environmental sustainability and resilience; and, stakeholder engagement.

Access and equity

The SDGs are first and foremost concerned with improving access to critical services for social development and poverty eradication, recognizing that depriving access to one service can have huge negative impacts on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. This outcome most reflects the SDG orientation on poverty eradication and social impact and more equitable forms of development. Equity could be broadly defined as equal access to the PPP project outputs/services, and that proactive measures are employed, where necessary, to ensure that the economically disadvantaged and those who suffer from social exclusion can also share in the project benefits.

Economic effectiveness and fiscal sustainability

Economic effectiveness and fiscal sustainability refer to the project’s contribution to economic growth and development through good quality jobs, women’s empowerment, etc. It also stems from the project’s ability to utilize efficiently all economic assets, generate profitability from affordable tariffs while allowing sustainable budget and debt management by the public party, including off-balance sheet debt and contingent liabilities.

Replicability

Replicability is the way in which the project can lead to the development of further projects. This can be done by the project itself training local staff and public administrations. At the same time, such scalability cannot come at the expense of higher social or environmental costs.

Environmental sustainability and resilience 

Environmental sustainability refers to the protection and preservation of the planet and is a basic requirement of sustainability. Acting to combat climate change and its impacts is integral to the successful implementation to the SDGs. Resilience refers to “the ability of a system, community or society exposed to hazards to resist, absorb, accommodate, adapt to, transform and recover from the effects of a hazard in a timely and efficient manner, including through the preservation and the restoration of its essential basic structures and functions through risk management”

Stakeholder engagement

Stakeholder engagement means creating the right incentives for stakeholder engagement and public participation and encouraging investors to recognise the value of effective and inclusive stakeholder engagement and public participation. A more significant form of stakeholder engagement and public participation that is more in tune with the ethos of “People-first” is to engage directly with the communities affected by the projects and mobilise them through a collective body.

Methodology consists of three elements: 1. benchmarks and indicators that demonstrate achievement in each of the five People first PPP outcomes; 2. a weighting and ranking of these outcomes along with other issues pertinent to scoring; 3. a scoring system that can provide various stakeholders with the evaluations needed to revise and adjust their projects to make them more compliant with the People-first PPP outcomes and the SDGs.

More about the Methodology here