prof. mr. dr. W.A. (Willem) Janssen
prof. dr. W.A. (Willem) Janssen is the Endowed Professor of Public Procurement Law, holding the chair of the Dutch Association for Public Procurement Law, and an Associate Professor of European and Dutch Public Procurement Law. He holds these positions respectively at the Faculty of Law (section European and Economic Law), Groningen University and at the law department of Utrecht University.
Research 'Public Procurement (Law) for Good'
His line of research 'Public Procurement (Law) for Good' delves into challenging questions related to sustainable and responsible outsourcing and insourcing in the public procurement (law) context. How can effective regulation come into effect in light of sustainable development? This research focus touches upon issues related to the influence of EU public procurement law on the organisation of public tasks on the national level (in-house, public cooperation, make-or-buy decision etc.) and the stimulation of societal value via public procurement procedures (social policy, social enterprises, right to challenge, social entrepreneurship etc).
In hisinaugural address, he argued in favour of revamping public procurement law, in which the core value is sustainability instead of marketintegration or competition.
He leads a research project on circularity and public procurement law (CIRCLASH), and is a co-lead on a project related to landuse, sustainability and law, with a focus on competitive obligations stemming from the Didam ruling (Fertile Soils). His work has been published in various international and Dutch academic journals, including Hart Publishers, Public Procurement Law Review, European Public-Private Partnership & Procurement Law Review, Utrecht Law Review, Tijdschrift Aanbestedingsrecht, Jurisprudentie Aanbestedingsrecht, Tekst & Commentaar, and Tijfschrift voor Staatssteun.
He is a board member of the interdisciplinary Utrecht University Centre for Public Procurement (UUCePP), co-initiator of the university-wide Platform 'The Transactional State' within the research theme Institutions for Open Societies (IoS) and a co-lead of the Community Towards a Circular Economy and Society Community binnen Pathways to Sustainability (Pts).. He is co-initiator of the research project 'Public Interest Ecosystems' within RENFORCE. He is also a member of the EU-wide researchnetwork 'European Procurement Law Group'. He is the scientific coordinator of Urban-Rural Circularity at the Institute for Circular Society within de EWUU alliantie.
He was a Visiting Scholar at The George Washington University's Government Procurement Program in Washington D.C. in 2014, at Copenhagen University in 2020/21 and at Alcala University in 2024, and has been priviledged to present his research at various universities and societal stakeholders, including the European Commission, Global Revolution Conference, the European Environmental Law Forum and at Oxford University, Nottingham University, Turin University, Dublin University, Leiden University, Maastricht University, Finnish Public Procurement Association, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, the Dutch Public Procurement Association, the Dutch Parliament, VNO-NCW and Mkb Nederland, Municipality of Utrecht, the Vereniging Nederlandse Gemeenten, and the Circular Economy Lab.
Teaching
At the univeristy, he lectures public procurement law, sustainability and European law. He teaches the master course Sustainable Public Procurement law at the University of Groningen. He is the coordinator of the master Law and Sustainability in Europe and initiated the master course ‘Societally Responsible Public Procurement’ since 2017. Additionally, he coordinates executive courses on public procurement law specifically for lawyers, public purchasers and policy-makers, such as 'Aanbestedingsrecht voor de Inkooppraktijk' and various other in-house courses. In 2018 and 2020, he was short-listed for ‘Best Lecturer of the Year’. In 2020, he founded together with prof. dr. Marcel Ruygvoorn the Utrecht Law Clinic.
Other activities
On 1 September 2022, he was appointed by the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate as the chair of the Advisory Committee Proportionality Guide. Since 2019, he founded and co-hosts the first Dutch and English monthly freely available podcast ‘BESTEK - The Public Procurement Podcast', is an editor of Tijdschrift Aanbestedingsrecht (since 2019), was a monthly columnist at Gemeente.nu on the relationship between government and market (2018-2020) and is a board member of the Dutch Association for Public Procurement law (NVvA) since 2017. The podcast project was nominated for the Societal Impact Award 2019 of Utrecht University. In 2015, his joint research with prof. E.R. Manunza led to questions in the Dutch Parliament. In 2018, a commitee that he chaired advised the State Secretary for Economic Affairs and Climate on clustering of contracts, who followed all of the recommendations. Prior to 2016, he was a member of the NEVI and NVvA committees that were in charge of preparing for the EU public procurement directives of 2014.
Research interests
(EU) Public Procurement Law | Sustainability I Social justice I EU law I Internal market law I In-house and public-public cooperation I Societally Responsible outsourcing and insourcing
Contact
Email: w.a.janssen@rug.nl
LinkedIn: @willemajanssen
EN/NL Podcast: www.bestek-procurement.com
Links
| Last modified: | 13 March 2025 11.22 a.m. |