Wildy Logo
(020) 7242 5778
enquiries@wildy.com

Book of the Month

Cover of Company Directors: Duties, Liabilities and Remedies

Company Directors: Duties, Liabilities and Remedies

Edited by: Mark Arnold KC, Simon Mortimore KC
Price: £275.00

Lord Denning: Life, Law and Legacy



  


Welcome to Wildys

Watch


NEW EDITION Pre-order Mortgage Receivership: Law and Practice



 Stephanie Tozer, Cecily Crampin, Tricia Hemans
Practical guidance to relevant law & procedure


Offers for Newly Called Barristers & Students

Special Discounts for Newly Called & Students

Read More ...


Secondhand & Out of Print

Browse Secondhand Online

Read More...


Easter Closing

We will be closed between Friday 29th March and Monday 1st April for the Easter Bank Holidays, reopening at 8.30am on Tuesday 2nd April. Any orders received during this period will be processed with when we re-open.

Hide this message

The New Public Contracting: Regulation, Responsiveness, Relationality


ISBN13: 9780199291274
ISBN: 0199291276
Published: May 2006
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: UK
Format: Hardback
Price: £120.00



This is a Print On Demand Title.
The publisher will print a copy to fulfill your order. Books can take between 1 to 3 weeks. Looseleaf titles between 1 to 2 weeks.

This book charts the significant increase in Britain over the last 25 years in the deployment of contract as a regulatory mechanism across a broad spectrum of social relationships. Since Labour came to power in 1997 the trend has accelerated, the use of contract spreading beyond the sphere of economics into public administration and social policy. The 'new public contracting' is the term given this distinctive mode of governance, characterized by the delegation of contractual powers and responsibilities to public agencies in regulatory frameworks preserving central government controls and powers of intervention.

In many cases the contracts are not legally enforceable, their power as regulatory instruments deriving from the hierarchical authority relations in which they are embedded. Examples of the new public contracting include the regulation of relationships between government departments through Public Service Agreements and Framework Documents; the regulation of relationships between individual citizens and the state through Youth Offender Contracts, Parenting Contracts, and Jobseekers Agreements; the funding of public infrastructure projects through Public Private Partnerships; and the restructuring of key public service sectors such as health, social care and education through contracts in competitive quasi-markets, reflecting the Government's privatization agenda.

The book critically analyzes and evaluates such contractual arrangements with reference to theories of relational contract and responsive regulation. It argues that while in business and other private relations contract routinely enables the parties to regulate and adjust their on-going relationships to mutual benefit, this is often not the case in the new public contracting. In many instances crucial elements of trust, voluntariness, and reciprocity are shown to be lacking. This and other weaknesses in regulatory design are likely to impede the attainment of the Government's policy objectives.

The book demonstrates the problems of ineffectiveness and lack of legitimacy generally associated with this mode of regulation, and specifies institutional and other conditions that need to be satisfied for the more responsive governance of these public service functions.

  • Distinctive socio-legal approach to the analysis of public contracting in contemporary Britain
  • Covers a range of legal governance issues including government administration, and public services such as health and education
  • Topical examination of a range of key New Labour policies including privatization, the encouragement of competition and choice in public services, the reform of government administration, and the 'responsibilization' through contract of individual offenders, jobseekers, and school pupils

Subjects:
Local Government Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Contract Law, Public Procurement
Contents:
I CONCEPTUAL FOUNDATIONS AND GENEALOGY
1. Government by Contract and the New Public Contracting
2. Policy Background
II REGULATION, RESPONSIVENESS, RELATIONALITY
3. Regulation and Governance
4. Responsiveness
5. The New Public Contracting in Regulatory Perspective
III THE NEW PUBLIC CONTRACTING
6. Contract in Government
7. Contract and Economic Organisation
8. Citizens, Consumers, and Public Services
9. Contract and Social Control
IV LAW AND CONTRACTUAL GOVERNANCE
10. Legal Debates and Reform Strategies
11. Law and Contractual Governance
12. Conclusions ;