Reform of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement: Procurement Regulation for the 21st Century
Edited by Sue Arrowsmith
West, 2009
ISBN: 13:9780314904652
This new book edited and co-authored by Sue Arrowsmith examines different approaches to regulating “new” issues in public procurement, focusing on those areas addressed in the current review of UNCITRAL’s Model Law on procurement.
The Model Law on the Procurement of Goods, Construction and Services of UNCITRAL (the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law) was adopted in 1994, and provides a template for countries to use in developing and reforming their regulatory systems for public procurement.
One of the most successful of UNCITRAL’s instruments, this Model Law has been used in numerous states worldwide as the basis for legal reform. In 2003 UNCITRAL launched a project to revise the Model Law. This aims to update the Model Law to take account of new practical developments, drawing on the early experiences of states in dealing with these new developments.
In particular, it is proposed to include extensive new provisions on electronic means in procurement, on the conduct of electronic auctions, and on framework agreements. In addition, existing provisions of the Model Law will be revised in light of experience so far in operating its provisions. In this regard, important changes are anticipated to some of the Model Law’s key provisions, such as those on bid evaluation and supplier remedies. The revision process is expected to be complete in the summer of 2009.
Sue Arrowsmith’s new book examines and illuminates the proposed revisions to the Model Law through, first, an examination of the proposed revisions themselves and, secondly, a series of case studies on how the key new areas - electronic means in procurement, electronic auctions, and framework agreements – have been treated in various national and international procurement systems.
The case studies have been chosen based on several considerations, in particular the extent to which they reflect different approaches to regulation and practice; the need to consider countries with different legal traditions; the desire for a perspective from both developed and developing countries; the depth and breadth of experience that different jurisdictions provide; and the influence that various systems have had on the Model Law revisions.
Entitled Procurement Regulation for the 21st Century: Reform of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Procurement, the book will be published by West in early 2009. A well as chapters authored and co-authored by Professor Arrowsmith, the book includes contributions from Caroline Nicholas of the UNCITRAL Secretariat and from other renowned legal scholars and practitioners from around the world.