David Drabkin, Daniel Schoeni and Christopher Yukins spoke at the “Upphandlings-Konferensen” (“Public Procurement Conference”) held in Stockholm on April 25-26, 2024. The conference was very kindly hosted by Professor Andrea Sundstrand of Stockholm University.
David Drabkin
Dave Drabkin and Chris Yukins’ presentation, drawing on their report on debarment for the Acquisition Innovation Research Center, addressed convergence of the contractor exclusion/debarment systems in the United States and the European Union. A recent decision by the Court of Justice for the European Union, Infraestruturas de Portugal SA, explained that the EU Public Procurement Directive should be read to mean that procuring agencies in the EU have clear first authority to handle vendor exclusions and to assess vendors’ misconduct and remedial measures — from the U.S. perspective, a critical step in building effective risk-based debarment regimes in Europe to allow agencies to manage supply chain risk. (For background on the Infraestruturas decision, see Adrian Brown‘s recent piece in the Public Procurement Law Review and Albert Sanchez-Graell’s insightful analysis.)
Daniel Schoeni
Daniel Schoeni’s presentation — which was very well-received by the assembly of Swedish procurement attorneys — reviewed the parallels between the EU and the U.S. systems. Drawing on his PhD thesis at the University of Nottingham, Dan Schoeni explained that while the legal frameworks in the U.S. and the EU are remarkably similar, their foundations and implementations vary widely because of their different histories, politics and perspectives.
King’s College London and GW Law will be presenting a free webinar on the European Commission’s “White Paper” on foreign government subsidies, which would impose new EU measures to address foreign subsidies, including in public procurement.
Global challenges related to the climate changes as described in the Paris Agreement influence various aspects of public policies across the world. This leads us to observe in the U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden’ s New Green Deal, and in Europe, where for example the New Industrial Strategy for Europe calls for the support and implementation of the green aspects in public procurement. Also, the New European Green Deal and the Just Transition Fund should have a significant impact on the public procurement market and regulations.
Although Green Public Procurement (GPP) is still a non-mandatory legal instrument, the European Commission has opted for this solution as an effective measure in the EU’s efforts to become a more resource-efficient economy. GPP can help stimulate a critical mass of demand for more sustainable goods and services which otherwise would be difficult to get onto the market.
The new European initiatives are important not only for European public authorities and contractors but also for U.S. enterprises interested in Transatlantic cooperation.
The Institute of Law at the Univeristy of Silesia, Association ‘’Pro Silesia,’’ with the support of the George Washington University’s Government Procurement Program, invite you for a 90-minute, free webinar concerning current challenges and opportunities for green public policies and their influence on public procurement markets in the USA and the European Union, with discussions with leading specialists from both sides of the Atlantic.
Agenda and Speakers:
Prof. Jerzy Buzek, Member of the European Parliament, President of the European Parliament in the years 2009–2012, Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland in the years 1997–2001
New Green Deal and Just Transition Fund
Prof. Alexandra Harrington, University of Albany School of Law, Assistant Director of the Global Institute for Health and Human Rights (USA), Adv.Magdalena Stryja, University of Silesia in Katowice, Just Transition Research Group (Poland)
Intersections between Global Governance Regimes and Climate Change Law
Prof. Christopher Yukins, George Washington University, Washington D.C. (USA)
The U.S. experiences with the support of environmental aspects in government contracting.
Dr Wojciech Hartung – Counsel, Domański Zakrzewski Palinka (DZP) (Warsaw)
European Green Deal and Just Transition Fund reflections on the European Public Procurement legal regime
Adv. Katarzyna Kuzma, DZP, Public Procurement Law Association (Poland)
The support of the green effects in the new Polish Public Procurement Act
Question and Answer Session
Moderator:
Prof. Michał Kania, University of Silesia in Katowice
Speakers Biographies:
Prof. Jerzy Buzek – Member of the European Parliament continuously since 2004, and in the years 2009-2012 – its president. In the European Parliament prof. Buzek is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. In 2016, Euractiv recognized him as one of the three most influential people of European energy policy. He was ranked by the Rzeczpospolita daily as the best Polish MEP in 2008 and 2018.
In the years 1997-2001 he served as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland; his government carried out reforms of administration, education, health, pensions and mining. Professor Buzek also introduced Poland to NATO and started negotiations on its membership in the European Union. Knight of the Order of the White Eagle.
Prof. Alexandra Harrington – author of the book International Organizations and the Law and the forthcoming International Law and Global Governance: Treaty Regimes and Sustainable Development Goals Interpretation. Alexandra 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.
Adv. Magdalena Stryja performs the function of the Chair of the Science and Development Committee with the District Bar Association in Katowice. She is Poland’s first member of the international organization: Centre for International Sustainable and Development Law. Magdalena is a member of the interdisciplinary Polish Research Group Just Transition, which aims at developing and implementing the concept of fair transformation with a view to transforming the economy, lifestyle, culture and social values in Silesia in the face of climate change. She is a member of the University of Silesia-based Bioethics Research Group dealing with legal and bioethical aspects of medicine and animal protection as well as environmental and climate protection. She is also a member of The Labour Law and Social Policy Research Group at the Institute of Legal Sciences at the University of Silesia.
Magdalena delivers lectures on labour law and social policy. Her research interests also encompass legal aspects of climate change, including the social aspects of retraining employees.
Prof. Christopher Yukins – serves as co-director of the government procurement law program at George Washington University Law School, and has taught there on contract formations and performance issues in public procurement, bid protests and claims litigation, state and local procurement, Anti-corruption issues, foreign contracting, procurement reform, and comparative and international law. He has testified on issues of procurement reform and trade before committees of the U.S. Congress and the European Parliament. He is a visiting professor at the Université Paris Nanterre, where he lectures annually, and has taught a week-long course on procurement issues and corruption at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (Austria).
Prof. Yukins has spoken as a guest lecturer at institutions around the world, and he was a contributing editor to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime manual, Guidebook on Anti-Corruption in Public Procurement. He is an active member of the Public Contract Law Section of the American Bar Association, and is a member of the Procurement Roundtable, an organization of senior members of the U.S. procurement community. He is a faculty advisor to the Public Contract Law Journal, is a member of the editorial board of the European Procurement & Public-Private Partnership Law Review and is on the advisory board of The Government Contractor. He has worked on a wide array of international projects on capacity-building in procurement, and he was an advisor to the U.S. delegation to the working group on reform of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Procurement Law. Together with his colleagues, he runs a colloquium series on procurement reform at The George Washington University Law School. In private practice, Professor Yukins has been an associate, partner and counsel at leading law firms; he is currently counsel to the firm of Arnold & Porter.
Dr Wojciech Hartung – counsel at the Polish law firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka, advises on infrastructure projects carried out under the Public Procurement Law or using partnership structures, i.e. PPP, concessions and other forms of co-operation between public and private partners, specialises in public-public cooperation (in-house procurement) issues. They have been addressed in his PhD dissertation on the “Independence of a basic local government unit upon the organisation and provision of municipal services in light of European law and Polish legal order’’. Wojciech is a Member of a working group set up by the Ministry of Development to review the law on public-private partnerships and to draw up a government policy in this respect. Until March 2009 dr Hartung acted as the Director of the European Union and International Co-operation Department at the Public Procurement Office. Wojciech was also Polish representative on the European Council’s Working Group on Public Procurement and on the Advisory Committee for Public Works Contracts set up by the European Commission. Wojciech is a member of Public Procurement Law Association.
Adv. Katarzyna Kuzma – partner at the Polish law firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka and heads the team providing services relating to Polish and European public procurement law. She has extensive experience in advising both public and private entities operating in various sectors (including construction and engineering services, environmental protection, pharmaceutical and energy) on projects carried out in the traditional form (public procurement) and those based on partnership structures in the broad meaning of the term (PPP, concessions).
The advice Katarzyna renders covers all stages of procedures (including representation before the National Appeal Chamber and common courts) and performance of public contracts, including inspections and financial adjustment procedures. She actively promotes implementation of compliance systems in the area of public procurement, with special focus on bid rigging. Katarzyna is also the Vice-President of the Public Procurement Law Association.
Michał Kania – professor at the Silesian University in Katowice, legal adviser with 15 years of experience, member of the Just Transition Research Group. Michał is also an active member of the Public Procurement Association and legal consultant with the specialization in Public-Private Partnership and public procurement law, Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the George Washington University (2018-2019), Fellowship of German Academic Exchange Service at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (2017), speaker at the Polish and international conferences, initiator and lecturer at the Postgraduate Studies in Public-Private Partnership and Public Procurement at the Silesian University in Katowice, independent adviser for the Polish Ministry of Development for the concept of the new Polish Public Procurement Act, adopted on 11 September 2019, plenipotentiary of the President of the University of Silesia for PPP projects.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 9:00 ET/14:00 UK/15:00 CET/21:00 CST
Governments around the world are imposing trade controls that may cut off access to life-saving equipment. GW Law held an open webinar on protectionism in the COVID-19 pandemic – the barriers to imports and exports that threaten to deepen the pandemic. The program materials are below.
https://youtu.be/-y1c5w8R0jM
Program Recording –Instructions on Using Auto-Captioning in 100+ Languages
Tom McSorley, Arnold & Porter (Washington DC) – BioHumanitarian aid US Export Controls
Zornitsa Kutlina-Dimitrova, European Union – DG for Trade – Bio – Works
Moderators: Christopher Yukins, GW Law School; Vanessa Sciarra, National Foreign Trade Council; Laurence Folliot Lalliot (University of Paris Nanterre (joining from Dakar))
Governments’ procurements of critically needed supplies for COVID-19 – such as ventilators, masks, and other protective equipment – are collapsing in the face of a worldwide pandemic and global shortage. Join this free webinar with George Washington University Law School to discuss the emerging economic, business, political and legal aspects of what may well be the biggest procurement challenge of our time, with private and public experts from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
On December 12, 2019 the University Paris Est Créteil hosts a conference on principles of public contracts in Europe, coordinated by Professor Stéphane de La Rosa, University Professor and Director of the Research Team MIL (Markets, Institutions and Liberties).
Steven Van Garsse, Professeur à l’Université de Anvers (BE), Professor of Public Law – University of Anvers/Hasselt, on Principles of efficiency and effectiveness
Romélien Colavitti, Senior Lecturer in Public Law – University of Valenciennes, on The principles governing alternate modesof dispute resolution
Carole Cravero, PhD student University of Turin and University of Paris-West Nanterre, on The Principles of Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Contracts
Vincent Bouhier, Senior Lecturer and Dean – Evry-Paris Saclay University, The Principle of Reciprocity
Lt Col Daniel Schoeni, Judge Advocate, U.S. Air Force; PhD Candidate, University of Nottingham, Is the practice of negotiation in public contracts a common principle?
Christopher Yukins, Lynn David Research Professor of Government Procurement Law, George Washington University Law School; moderator
Join a special presentation on the United States’ international trade agreements in procurement. Chris Yukins and Allen Green will present on their chapter in The Contractor’s Guide to International Procurement (American Bar Association 2018) (Erin Loraine Felix & Marques Peterson, eds.). They will give an overview of international trade agreements, and discuss recent “Buy American” developments in the Trump administration. The program will be held at the Dentons law firm, 1900 K Street NW, from 12-1:30 pm. Lunch will be served.
