CUP has just published the book, Optimising Public Interest through Competitive Tendering, co-edited by Professor Sue Arrowsmith, along with Chris Jansen, Johan Wolswinkel and Frank van Ommeren. Of interest to all EU and administrative lawyers, this book looks at EU/national regulation of state allocation of limited economic rights such as public procurement contracts, grants and subsidies and government property by sale.
Using an analytical framework first developed by Professor Arrowsmith for analysing these issues in public procurement, various chapters look at how the different interests involved are balanced under the different regulatory regimes. For example, how is the need for fairness to applicants balanced with the need for quick decisions and action? How is the need to ensure integrity in the process balanced against the resource cost that may be needed to ensure a corruption-free procedure? How can social and environmental concerns be factored into the process without excessive cost to the taxpayer?
Key questions are how far the law is, and should, be evolving towards a common regime for all types of limited rights rather than adopting a fragmented approach, and what the approach to one type of rights can teach us when dealing with others. Not surprisingly, experience in regulating public procurement is interesting here, and Professor Arrowsmith has contributed a specific chapter on that subject, including the lessons and limitations of the experience of procurement regulation for regulating the allocation of other types of limited right.
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Posted on Thursday 3rd July 2025