United Nations

For information only - not an official document

UNIS/L/169
10 July 2012

United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Adopts a Guide to Enactment of its 2011 Model Law on Public Procurement

Supporting the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement, UNCITRAL issues detailed policy guidance on the text

VIENNA, 10 July (UN Information Service) - A guide to help States develop modern public procurement laws has been issued by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). The Guide to Enactment of the 2011 Model Law is intended to enable government purchasers to take advantage of modern commercial techniques, such as e-procurement and framework agreements, and to enhance integrity in public procurement and to assist States in formulating a modern procurement law.

The Guide provides detailed recommendations to States on how to enact and implement the Model Law, and discusses the policy options and solutions in the Model Law itself. The Commission recommends the Guide as an indispensable accompaniment to the text of the Model Law. The Guide is presented in a way that allows different readers to focus on their particular area of interest, including legislative issues, and issues of implementation and use.

The work on the preparation of the Guide was undertaken by UNCITRAL Working Group I in tandem with its work on the Model Law, at sessions starting with the sixth session in 2004 and ending with its twenty-first session in 2012. The Guide to Enactment of its 2011 Model Law on Public Procurement will be available at http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/uncitral_texts.html in the autumn of 2012; in the meantime, a draft of its provisions (subject to final editing) is available at http://www.uncitral.org/uncitral/en/commission/working_groups/1Procurement.html.

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The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) is the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law. Its mandate is to remove legal obstacles to international trade by progressively modernizing and harmonizing trade law. It prepares legal texts in a number of key areas such as international commercial dispute settlement, electronic commerce, insolvency, international payments, sale of goods, transport law, procurement and infrastructure development. UNCITRAL also provides technical assistance to law reform activities, including assisting Member States to review and assess their law reform needs and to draft the legislation required to implement UNCITRAL texts. The UNCITRAL Secretariat is located in Vienna, Austria.

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For information contact including advice on implementation of the new Model Law please contactus by email at: uncitral[at]uncitral.org or:

Timothy Lemay
Principal Legal Officer
UNCITRAL Secretariat
Email: timothy.lemay[at]uncitral.org