Archives

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  Concession contracts

  Vol. 12 No. 1 (2025)

  The history of concessions for public works and services in Portugal has been marked by enormous successes in the country's infrastructure development, as well as experiences that have been severely criticised by various political and judicial quarters (in particular by the Court of Auditors) for their financial sustainability and economic rationality. It has often been pointed out that the way in which various concessions and public-private partnerships were structured, poorly prepared, with a deficient allocation of risks to the private partner, and based on often unrealistic demand projections, called into question the budgetary affordability of the projects, placed an unsustainable burden on the public treasury, undermined the ‘principle of intergenerational equity’, and offered private partners advantages that were disproportionate to the investments and risks assumed.

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  Access to justice and enforcement of rights – an introduction

  Vol. 12 No. 2 (2025)

  Imagine walking into a courtroom for the first time in your life. You feel stressed, uncertain, and everything is at stake. Now imagine that on the other side sits an insurance company or government agency that has been in this position hundreds of times before. This contrast – between what Marc Galanter (1974) called the “one-shotter” and the “repeat player” – lies at the heart of his classic work Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead. Galanter showed that courts do not operate on a level playing field: those who appear again and again develop strategies, cultivate expertise, and even shape the rules themselves, while individuals, appearing only once, must bear the full risk of an unfamiliar system. The result is not random but structural: repeat players steadily accumulate advantages, while one-shotters are left at a disadvantage. More than forty years after its publication, Galanter’s argument continues to resonate: inequality before the courts is not simply about who has the better lawyer, but about how institutions themselves reward those who already know how to play the game.