Judicial Protection and Competitive Award Procedures in Germany

The history of German public procurement law is a history of attempts by the German legislator to implement the EU public procurement directives on judicial protection, namely Directive 89/665/EEC of 21 December 1989, as minimally as possible. Paradoxically, the history of German procurement law is also the history of an increased spreading of the model of judicial review in 'competitive award procedures' underlying Directive 89/665/EEC to other administrative procedures. Here, one can discern mutual fertilization of the discussions on the minimal standards for judicial protection foreseen in Directive 89/665/EEC, as well as a parallel discussion on minimal standards (directly derived from the German constitution) for judicial review in competitive award procedures concerning the recruitment of public officials. On this basis, one may discern trends in German case law, administrative practice, and scholarship towards developing judicial review systems in competitive award procedures for public procurement beyond the thresholds set by the EU directives. This is relevant for privatizations, gambling licences, and procedures to grant the right to use public spaces, to name only a few. However, these trends encounter difficulties because the German General Administrative Court Procedure Act and other relevant legislation are not tailored to competitive award procedures. This article will analyse these different trends and suggest explanations for them.