Las comunidades de regantes ante la legislación de contratos del sector público

Abstract

This paper addresses the subjection or not of the irrigation communities -and of any communities of public water users- to the Public Sector Contracts Law. This is a contentious issue, as demonstrated by the fact that radically opposed interpretations of it have been advocated by some contractual administrative courts. The sustained conclusion is contrary to the consideration of the irrigation communities as an integral part of the subjective scope of application of the public sector contracts legislation, since they do not fit either in the concept of public administration or in the contracting authority that lacks of the status of public administration nor, finally, in the category of public sector entities which do not have the character of contracting authority.

Keywords

• contracting authorities
• irrigation communities
• public law corporations
• public sector contracts
• subsidized contracts subject to harmonized regulation