International Construction Law Review
THE CONTRAT DE PARTENARIAT: A NEW FORM OF FRENCH PUBLIC PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP ALLOWING THE USE OF ARBITRATION TO ADJUDICATE DISPUTES
PIERRE HEITZMANN*
Jones Day
Introduction
Following the recent success of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in some countries of the European Union and in particular in the UK with the Private Finance Initiative projects,1
PPPs have been recognised as an alternative and cost-effective method to mobilise, through project financing, additional financial resources and benefits from the private sector, especially in the context of financial shortages in the public sector. The recent Resource Book on PPP Case Studies
released by the European Commission2
shows that PPPs have been widely used in Europe and that the traditional concession model has been adapted to new needs coming from both the public and private sectors.
A few months after the European Commission published the Guidelines for Successful Public-Private Partnerships
in March 2003,3
under European Commissioner for Regional Policy and Institutional Reform Michel Barnier, the French legislature passed Law No 2003–591 and authorised the government to prepare new regulations through a governmental Act4
(“ordonnance
”) to
* The author is a member of the Paris Bar and of the Paris international arbitration team of Jones Day. He also teaches international contracts law at the Paris Institute for Political Sciences (Sciences-Po). Mr Heitzmann completed his legal studies in France and is a graduate of Sciences-Po; he also holds an LLM from Duke University. The views expressed in this article are the views of the author and should not be considered the views of Jones Day or of its clients. The English translations provided in this article from French judicial decisions and legal provisions are by the author. Copyright by the author. A short comment by Mr Heitzmann on the decision of the French Administrative Supreme Court dated 29 October 2004 appeared in the October 2005 issue of Mealey’s International Arbitration Report
.
1 See the report issued in July 2003 by HM Treasury, PFI: Meeting the Investment Challenge
, available at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/648B2/PFI604.pdf
2 See Resource Book on PPP Case Studies
, European Commission, DG Regional Policy, June 2004, available at www.europa.eu.int
3 Guidelines for Successful Public-Private Partnerships
, European Commission, March 2003, available on www.europa.eu.int
4 Law No 2003–591 dated 2 July 2003 authorising the government to simplify the law (Loi n°2003-591 du 2 juillet 2003 habilitant le Gouvernement à simplifier le droit), published in the JORF of 3 July 2003, available on www.legifrance.gouv.fr. Once ratified by the legislature, a governmental act (“ordonnance
”) acquires the status of a Law retroactively.
Pt 1]
The Contrat de Partenariat
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