Short courses

None

For government officials, embassy and NGO staff, and students

Designed for professionals as well as students, with limited time and resources, our short courses allow you to specialise in a variety of field of studies.

Government Procurement Regulation in the WTO

Can international procurement law be reconciled with government principles and other policy objectives, like environmental and social sustainability?

Learn about government procurement law and how it's regulated at the multilateral, WTO level.

About the course
This course provides an introduction to the international law governing government procurement (also referred to as “public procurement”). Students will gain an in-depth understanding of what government procurement is and how it is regulated within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) through the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).

The course will focus on contemporary issues that surround international government procurement, e.g. the strategic use of government procurement to advance sustainability goals. Finally, students will familiarize themselves with current developments in government procurement within the WTO, on a national level and through Free Trade Agreements (FTA).

Find the full syllabus here and below.

Lecturer
Dr. Rika Koch is an assistant professor and co-leader of the public procurement research group at the Bernese University of Applied Science (BFH). In addition, she is a lecturer in WTO Law and a guest lecturer on Swiss foreign economic law at the Universities of Zurich and Bern. Before her current role, she served as a legal counsel in the Swiss Federal Administration, where she advised on a number of legal issues, especially public procurement projects.

She studied political science at the University of Zurich, Law at the University of Bern and did her PhD in green government procurement at the University of Zurich with a research stay at the University of Nottingham (UK), funded by the Swiss National Foundation SNF.

In her research, she focuses on public procurement law at the intersection of environmental and social law, but also on questions surrounding public procurement law and digitalization, such as data protection and artificial intelligence (AI).

Course dates
Four Thursdays in October and November (19.10, 2.11, 16.11, 30.11), 9.15 – 11.45 hrs

Venue
World Trade Institute (WTI), Hallerstrasse 6, 3012 Bern
This course is hybrid: it is offered on-site and online (Zoom).

Admission
The course is open to government officials, embassy staff, people working for international organisations and NGOs, WTI alumni Master students from the University of Bern or any other university worldwide.

If you are interested, please send an email to masters@wti.org

Fees
600 Swiss francs