The partnership contract: an instrument for modernizing public procurement contract law? Essay applied to the road and rail infrastructure sectors.

Summary The partnership contract allows local authorities to entrust an economic operator with the financing of works or equipment as well as their design, construction, operation or management of public services, while refraining from being the contracting authority and remunerating the operator by means of staggered payments throughout the duration of the contract. Does an in-depth analysis of this contractual arrangement, particularly as applied to the rail and road sectors, really allow us to conclude that this is the beginning of a modernization of public procurement contract law? Nothing is less certain. Indeed, depending on the aspect considered, it appears that the partnership contract has, despite the hopes it has raised to this end, had great difficulty in establishing itself as the keystone of a true modernization of public procurement contract law. To demonstrate that the partnership contract has both failed and, at least in part, initiated this renewal, it is necessary to examine the three fundamental aspects of the life of public procurement contracts, namely their conclusion, their financing and their execution. This essay shows that although the partnership contract has not created a real revolution in public procurement law, it has nevertheless laid the foundations for a modernization that is now underway, both in terms of financing and execution.