Public contracts are more and more concluded following competitive tendering procedures that are governed by public procurement law. In the event that conflicts between the contracting authority and the winning tenderer arise, during the execution of the contract, these conflicts will have to be resolved by applying concepts and rules of general contract law. This may lead to questions on the influence of the tendering procedure, and of its particular regulation, on the said application of concepts and rules of general contract law. This project seeks to identify and answer these questions, in order to take away legal uncertainties and to diminish (unnecessary) transaction costs of tendering procedures. Its further goal is to contribute to the body of knowledge on the general issue of interaction between multiple systems of legal rules.
The Centre
The Centre for Public Contract Law & Governance is an expert centre of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. It focuses on government contracts, public procurement, distributing scarcity, public-private legal relationships, semi-public entities, and distribution of responsibilities on the market.
