University of Bristol Law School -- in celebration of Europe Day 2016
[cover (c) by Denis Bocquet]

The use of public procurement (or government contracts) to pursue social aims (such as the creation of local or regional employment, or the enforcement of labour standards) has been a controversial issue for a very long time. In several landmark cases (such as Laval un Partneri in 2007, or Rüffert in 2008) the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) established the parameters within which the award of contracts covered by EU public procurement law could be used to enforce labour standards.

This led to a 10-year long academic debate on the specific limits of the CJEU’s case law and the desirability of the underlying policy choices in EU law, particularly in light of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart economic growth. This debate gained especial relevance in the UK after the adoption of the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012.

These considerations were highly influential in the revision of EU public procurement law in 2014. Additionally to this substantial revision of EU legislation, which also brought about the a posted workers enforcement Directive, the CJEU recently adopted a new wave of decisions regarding the use of public procurement to enforce labour standards (remarkably, Bundesdruckerei in 2014 and, very recently, RegioPost in 2015). These new cases have the potential of transforming this area of EU law in a very significant way, and their implications require some careful analysis.

Overall, the cumulative effect of these legal developments are highly relevant not only at the EU level, but also in the UK, in particular regarding some socially-oriented policies involving the creation of apprenticeships or the enforcement of the living wage in the context of public sector contracts.

In order to reassess the scope and limits for the enforcement of labour standards in the public procurement field, we have invited a panel of academics of the highest quality, including

Prof Catherine Barnard, Professor of European Union Law, University of Cambridge
Ms Nina Boeger, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Bristol Law School and Director of Centre for Law and Enterprise
Dr Piotr Bogdanowicz, Assistant Professor, University of Warsaw Faculty of Law
Dr Richard Craven, Lecturer in Law, University of Leicester
Prof Anne Davies, Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Oxford
Prof Michael Ford QC, Professor of Law University of Bristol Law School and Employment Silk of the Year 2015
Dr Amy Ludlow, Lecturer in Law, University of Cambridge
Prof Tonia Novitz, Professor of Labour Law University of Bristol Law School
Dr Lisa Rodgers, Lecturer in Law, University of Leicester
Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells, Senior Lecturer in Law University of Bristol Law School
Ms Abby Semple, University of London/Birkbeck College & PriceWaterhouseCoopers
Dr Phil Syrpis, Reader in Law University of Bristol Law School

Ultimately, the event we are organising aims to take stock of these recent developments and to assess them, both from an EU and domestic UK law perspective. In particular, the event aims to invite leading academics to answer the following questions:

How does the revised approach to the enforcement of labour standards in public procurement fit within the EU constitutional and internal market framework?
What are the limits of the enforcement of labour standards under the new EU public procurement rules and, in particular, under Art 70 of Directive 2014/24? How do the CJEU Judgments in Bundesdruckerei and RegioPost affect the interpretation of the provision?
What are the implications of these developments in the broader context of EU labour law? How does this relate to the implementation of the Posted Workers Enforcement Directive?
What are the implications of these developments in the specific context of UK law? How can they impact on the interpretation and effectiveness of the Social Value Act 2012? How do they affect the design of procurements covered by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015?

Please join us and contribute to these important debates.

Public Procurement & Labour Standards–Reopening the Debate after RegioPost