Municipal corporations: the transition towards administrative law and the impact of the law 9/2017 on public sector contracts

Abstract

Municipal corporations, despite being private law entities, have suffered in recent years, both due to different regulations and various jurisprudential and doctrinal interpretations, a significant penetration of administrative law in several aspects related to human resources, patrimonial assets, transparency, patrimonial responsability and, especially, in public procurement. In this transition towards administrative law, the most relevant step was the entry into force of Law 9/2017, of November 8, on public sector contracts which, in many aspects, equates municipal corporations to public administrations. To understand this transition, this study will define the legal regime of municipal corporations, then point out all those issues of administrative law that have had an impact on the management of these entities and will focus, in particular, on analyzing the level of application of the Law on public sector contracts to municipal corporations in all phases of the procurement procedure —preparation, award, formalization and execution— with the aim of clarifying, also from a practical point of view, those aspects that are not clear enough and that may be object of interpretation. Finally, the impact of the Law on public sector contracts on the legal regime of municipal corporations will be put into context, as well as that of the other areas of administrative law that also applicable to them, in order to assess what is the current and future situation of these entities.