Perhaps a bit late for Happy New Year, but nonetheless I hope not too late to anticipate some of this year's challenges and how I hope to reflect some of them in this blog.
In procurement law in the United Kingdom we can expect that 2023 will be the year in which a lot of the ongoing changes will land in a Procurement Act, revision to defence procurement, and new provider selection arrangements for the NHS. I don’t plan to comment too much on the ongoing process to those new norms but anticipate that there will be plenty to talk about as the changes are finalised and brought into force. In the meantime, for snapshots on the current discussions there have been some excellent recent briefings published by the House of Commons library at https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/type/research-briefing/.
As I noted on 30 November I now have an additional role as leader of the European Circuit of the Bar of England & Wales which will take me into a much broader range of topics involving aspects of the EU-UK relationship and I may take advantage of "mostly" in the title to the blog to cover some of them here.
Many such practical challenges will be raised by the ongoing discussions regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol, its potential repeal, and the stuttering progress of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill. The Bar Council has done a great deal of work in explaining to government and legislatures the practical challenges of the current proposals. I anticipate that through the Circuit we will seek to develop discussion about the challenges of dealing with cross-border legal problems in almost any area of law.
The circuit has an additional focus as a grouping of litigators and the like based across Europe, particularly in Ireland but also in a number of other EU and EEA states. We plan to expand our contribution to the profession and the discussion amongst lawyers from different jurisdictions.
The development of a functioning relationship between the UK and EU may be much the least of the concerns for most of the EU now, but I hope that we can contribute to the dialogue regarding the continent's serious challenges including security, climate, biodiversity, health, and long term demographic change.
Instead of thinking about all these matters over the break, I watched alot of television but even there I could not avoid more serious reflection on some of this issues. In the recent series of documentaries “The History of Now” (available on BBC iPlayer for those who can access it) Simon Schama particularly underlined a particular text from Vaclav Havel’s ‘The Power of the Powerless’:
“Because the regime is captive to its own lies, it must falsify everything. It falsifies the past. It falsifies the present, and it falsifies the future. It falsifies statistics…It pretends to respect human rights. It pretends to persecute no one. It pretends to fear nothing. It pretends to pretend nothing.”
It would be presumptuous to refer that thought to a system outside the United Kingdom, but if the last few years has shown anything it is that a system can succumb all to easily to these risks, or temptations as part of the process of seeking political advantage. I hope that the European Circuit can do its part in preventing the drift towards a regime based on pretence. As I explore areas out of my professional comfort zone with the Circuit over the next few months, I hope to contribute occasionally to that on this blog.
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