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Sue Arrowsmith

Professor Emerita, Public Procurement Law and Policy,

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Biography

Sue Arrowsmith KC (hon) is Professor Emerita of Public Procurement Law and Policy at the University of Nottingham, where she was formerly Director of the Public Procurement Research Group (1998-2020) and of the postgraduate Executive programme in Public Procurement Law and Policy (LLM/Diploma/Certificate) (2009-2020). She was formerly a Tutor (1987-88), Lecturer (1988-1991) and Professor (1991-1998) at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Achilles Professor at the University of Nottingham (1998-2020). She has a first class honours degree in jurisprudence from Oxford University (Somerville College), where she won several university and college law prizes including the prestigious Gibbs Prize, and a D.Jur from Osgoode Hall Law School, where she studied on a Commonwealth Scholarship. In 2019 she was awarded the title of Queens Counsel (honoris causa) (now Kings Counsel) by Her Majesty The Queen in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the law of England and Wales, and in 2007 received the CIPS Swinbank Medal for thought innovation in purchasing and supply.

She is currently a member of the Department of International Trade's Thematic Trade Advisory Group (Public Procurement) dealing with trade negotiations with trading partners outside the EU (2020- present).

Recently she has played a major role on the Cabinet Office Procurement Transformation Advisory Group (2019-2020), advising on the post-Brexit procurement reform programme which resulted in the Government's Green Paper of December 2020. In 2018-2019, as Expert to the International Partnership Against Corruption in Sport (IPACS) Task Force 1, she supervised the research work on procurement in international sporting events in collaboration with the OECD that was used as the basis for the 2019 IPACS report on tackling corruption in procurement for these events. She also recently served as a member of the Advisory Panel for the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid (Ministry of Justice).

She was formerly a member of the UNCITRAL Procurement Experts Group and main consultant for the UNCITRAL reform project leading to the 2011 UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement and was a member of the World Bank International Advisory Group on Procurement for its 2017 overhaul of its policies on procurement in developing countries. She was also previously a member for more than 20 years of the European Commission's independent Advisory Committee on procurement. She has worked with, among others, the UK government, UN, WTO, European Commission, OECD, EU, European Central Bank, IADB, ILO and the Law Commission of England and Wales, as well as for law firms and commercial companies, including providing input into the WTO's regional and training academies for building capacity in public procurement.

Her numerous books and other publications have been extensively cited in courts in the UK, in other parts of Europe and the ECJ, and in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Her major treatise The Law of Public and Utilities Procurement (3rd ed. 2014 (Vol.1) and 2018 (vol.2)) was described in 2018 by the domestic High Court as "the leading academic authority" and "highly persuasive" for the courts in making decisions, and has also been cited in at least ten other European countries.

Her other authored books include (with J. Linarelli and D. Wallace Jr) Regulating Public Procurement; National and International perspectives (2000) and Government Procurement in the WTO (Kluwer, 2003). Her most recent edited collections include (with Luke R Butler, Annamaria La Chimia and Christopher R Yukins, Public Procurement in (a) Crisis? Global Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic (Hart, 2021); (with Peter Kunzlik) Social and Environmental Policies in EC Procurement Law: New Directive and New Directions (2009; CUP); (with R. D. Anderson), The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (CUP, 2011); (with S.Treumer) Competitive Dialogue in EU Procurement Law (2012, CUP); and (with Geo Quinot), Public Procurement Regulation in Africa (CUP, 2013).

In 1992 she launched the first international academic procurement journal, Public Procurement Law Review, and has edited the Review for more than 30 years.

She has taught university modules on procurement since 1995. She was Project Leader of the EU-funded project for developing a global academic network on procurement regulation, which included setting up several university centres for teaching and research in procurement in Europe and Asia (2008-2012) and also received awards from the British Academy, including a Newton Fellowship, to develop this work in Africa, leading to the creation and development of a further procurement centre in Africa.

She initiated the world-leading series of conferences Public Procurement: Global Revolution, launched in 1996 and with the next event to be held at the East Midlands Conference Centre in June 2022.

Expertise Summary

Her main expertise is in the legal regulation of public procurement.

In particular, she is an expert on the procurement regimes of the EU, UK, WTO and UNCITRAL (the Model Law on Public Procurement 2011), and on procurement in the field of sport.

Research Summary

As well as completing work on the reform of domestic public procurement regulations after Brexit.​​​​​​, Sue Arrowsmith is currently writing a book for Cambridge University Press in collaboration… read more

Selected Publications

  • SUE ARROWSMITH, LUKE R BUTLER, ANNAMARIA LA CHIMIA and CHRISTOPHER R YUKINS, eds., 2021. Public Procurement Regulation in (a) Crisis?: Global Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic Hart.
  • SUE ARROWSMITH, 2021. Reimagining Public Procurement Law: Proposals for Post-Brexit Reform Public Law. 2021, 69-87
  • SUE ARROWSMITH, 2021. Transforming Public Procurement Law after Brexit: Some Reflections on the Government’s Green Paper Public Procurement Law Review. 30, 103-123

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