Jens-Christian Gaedtke, Politische Auftragsvergabe und Welthandelsrecht

Abstract

This dissertation, written under the supervision of Martin Nettesheim at the University of Tübingen, brings together two issues that count among the most debated ones in international economic law. First, there is the longstanding debate to what extent the rules of world trade allow the WTO member states to pursue non-economic objectives in their trade relations with one another: that debate has culminated in well-known trade disputes, such as those on import restrictions on shrimps in order to protect the dolphins, import restrictions against genetically manipulated food, or the violation of immaterial property rights in order to provide free AIDS medicine to the population. Yet, the underlying tension between economic goals of international trade law and non-economic goals of national policies goes far beyond those particular disputes; it seems to be inherent in the universal trade system built upon WTO law. Secondly, the law of public procurement has been, for quite some time now, seized with the question whether national procurement authorities may pursue political objectives when awarding public contracts, such as to require contractors to respect certain social, environmental or human rights standards. The discussion on those “secondary” objectives has so far been mainly focussed on the procurement rules of the European Community, and seems to have neglected the impact of WTO law. Gaedtke’s opus goes about to change that, and asks what are the limits to political objectives in public procurement, in short to “political procurement,” under WTO law.