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EVENTS
The CLES is currently planning the following events:
- Claims for Damages in Competition and IP Law. Legal Framework and Economic Principles for the Evaluation of Damages
15 & 22 May and 3 & 10 June 2013
CPD course: 4 x 2.5 hour lectures
- Evidence in Competition Law Proceedings: A Comparative Perspective
5 June 2013
International conference - Theory and Practice of Regulatory Impact Assessments in Europe: A Comparative and Interdisciplinary Perspective
10 June 2013
International conference - Innovation, Competition Law and IP Rights
12 & 13 June, 18 & 19 June
CPD course: 4 x 4.5 hour lectures
For more information, please go to the events pages.
Contact Us
For general enquiries, please contact:
Anna Schüle
Administrator
+44 (0)20 7679 1407
a.schuele [at] ucl.ac.uk
For research project enquiries, please contact:
Dr Ioannis Lianos
+44 (0)20 7679 1028
i.lianos [at] ucl.ac.uk .
Papers
- Some Reflections on the Question of the Goals of EU Competition Law by Ioannis Lianos
For more working papers, please visit the CLES Research Paper Series section on this website.
Past Events
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Centre for Law, Economics & Society Enforcement Aspects of American Antitrust Law 4 Week CPD course: Wednesday 6 February, 20 February, 6 March and 20 March 2013 Speakers: Professor Joseph P. Bauer (Notre Dame Law School) |
About this course: This mini-course ran over four 2-hour sessions during February and March 2013. It considered the variety of issues raised by the availability of civil damages for successful plaintiffs, including the various methodologies for the calculation of base amounts; potential limitations on the amount of damages; and contribution for damages among co-defendants.This mini-course examined this structural landscape. Particular attention was given to the civil side, in which plaintiffs seek monetary relief. Case law under the antitrust laws has imposed numerous procedural barriers to bringing a successful action. The plaintiff must have standing to bring the lawsuit, and it must show that it suffered an "antitrust injury." One particularly important facet of these requirements in the so-called Illinois Brick rule, which provides that only a "direct purchaser" from the defendant may maintain an action for damages. Visit the event website. Download the course brochure. |
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The Social Media Research Initiative at the Centre for Law, Economics and Society at UCL Laws (SMRI@CLES)
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About this event: The effect of the spread of social media has been dramatic; altering the power dynamic between consumers and providers of goods and services, disrupting traditional business models, undermining intellectual property rights, enabling cultural participation, and facilitating a more democratic flow of information. On January 31, 2013 UCL Laws played host to a fascinating exchange between leading thinkers involved in the industry and policy surrounding social media. The discussion asked important questions about social media, and specifically social networks, and the impact of attempts to protect individual privacy, intellectual property, and other public interests. What is the value of social media to our cultural, social and professional lives? What interests are states seeking to protect when they discuss legal regulation of these technologies? Should we decide that regulation is appropriate, on what basis and rationale can this based upon? Do strict legal standards threaten to stifle the continued development of these innovative technologies? Does it make sense to consider self regulation here? This event will be of interest to industry leaders in this important area, and a range of students and faculty from diverse departments including law, public policy, and computer science. Visit the event website. |
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Centre for Law, Economics & Society Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Whose Balance of Innovation and Incentives? 14 January 2013 Speakers: The Hon. Mr Justice Barling (President, Competition Appeal Tribunal), Prof. Sir Robin Jacob (UCL), Giovanni Pitruzzella (Chairman, Italian Competition Authority), Howard Shelanski (Director, US Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics), Amelia Fletcher (OFT) and many others |
About this event: This event explored the tension between competition law and intellectual property law and will look at the different focuses on static versus dynamic efficiencies. It explored the differences from the view points of the courts, IP authorities and competition authorities. Visit the event website. |
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Thursday 6 December 2012 UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society The Present and Future of Behavioural Antitrust Speakers: The Hon Mr Justice Barling (President, Competition Appeal Tribunal), Dr Amelia Fletcher (OFT), Dr Andrea Coscelli (OFCOM), Dr Cristina Caffarra (CRA), Dr Peter Davies (Compass Lexecon), Paolo Siciliani (Chief Economist, BBC Trust), Prof. Christopher Leslie (University of California at Irvine School of Law), Prof. Maurice Stucke (University of Tennessee), John Kirkpatrick (UK Competition Commission), Prof. Avishalom Tor (Notre Dame Law School) and Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
About the event: Behavioural antitrust—the application to antitrust analysis of empirical evidence of common deviations of human behavior from strict rationality—is increasingly popular and hotly debated by competition law scholars and the enforcement agencies in the U.K, the EU more generally, and the U.S. alike. This timely conference will bring together leading experts in the field to examine the state-of-the-art of the behavioral approach to competition law and policy and to consider its future potential and limitations as an antitrust methodology. Visit the event website. |
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Tuesday 13 November 2012 UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society Antitrust Policy Towards Resale Price Maintenance following Leegin and ebooks: A US, UK and EU Comparative Competition Law Perspective Keynote: Prof. William S Comanor (University of California) Commentators: Dr Nelson Jung (UK Office of Fair Trading), Dr Abel Mateus (EBRD / UCL), Professor Alison Jones (KCL) and Dr Antonio Bavasso (UCL / Allen & Overy LLP) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
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Monday 12 November 2012 UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society Mergers and Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry Speaker: Prof. William S Comanor (University of California) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
About this lecture: The pharmaceutical industry has encountered a period of dramatic structural change. While industry leaders explain their mergers as a response to these shocks and a partial solution to the declining productivity problem, this lecture advances the reverse hypothesis: that instead of enhancing R&D productivity, the merger wave has jeopardized it. The central thesis emphasizes the uncertainties inevitably encountered in new drug discovery and development and the role of "parallel paths" -- i.e., the pursuit of multiple approaches to solving any given medical problem -- in coping with those uncertainties. Visit the event website. |
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Friday 19 October 2012, one day conference UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society and Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago School of Law Brands, Competition and the Law - Part II Speakers: Deven Desai (Thomas Jefferson Law School), Kirsten Edwards-Warren (UK Office of Fair Trading), Phil Evans, (FIPRA International), Warren Grimes, (Southwestern), Greg Gundlach (University of North Florida), James Langenfeld (Navigent Consulting), Ioannis Lianos (UCL), Deborah Majorus (Proctor & Gamble), Mark McKenna (Notre Dame Law School), John D. Mittelstaedt (University of Wyoming College of Business), John Noble (British Brands Group), Barak Orbach (University of Arizona), Joan Phillips (Loyola University Chicago), Matthew Sag (Loyola University Chicago), Eliot Schreiber (COO Cloverleaf Innovation), Spencer Weber Waller (Loyola University Chicago) Venue: Loyola University Chicago |
About this conference: This the second jointly organised conference on Brands, Competition and the Law - the first was held at UCL in December 2011. The aim of this conference is to reflect on the legal, business, and economic understanding of brands by explaining what brands are, how they function, and the role brands play in business competition. The conference will also delve into specific issues raised by branding in the 21st century business competition, such as the challenges raised by online business and the increasing role of private labels in distribution. Visit the event website. |
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Wednesday 10 October 2012 |
About this debate: As a corollary to the growing commercialization of professional sport, sports-related activities have progressively become the subject of competition law investigations. Sport and competition law still have an uneasy relationship, however. While the European Commission’s competition decisions in the area of sport have set out broad principles, many questions regarding how to take the specific characteristics of sport and its societal function into account in competition law enforcement remain unsettled. Since the decentralization of EU competition law enforcement in 2004, enforcement activity in this area has largely shifted to the national level. As a result, all stakeholders (sports organisations, rights owners, clubs, sports practitioners, etc.) increasingly need to learn and draw from national cases and enforcement decisions. The speaker will address the complexity of balancing sporting and commercial interests under EU competition law, focusing on outstanding issues and options relating to the marketing and exploitation of sports broadcasting rights, in particular joint selling, joint buying, and access to content by consumers. Download the presentation. Visit the event website. |
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Wednesday 23 May 2012 IUS Commune Macroeconomic Co-operation and International Law Speaker: Professor Eric Posner (Univ of Chicago) Chair: Professor Philippe Sands QC (UCL) |
About this lecture: The macroeconomic policies of states can produce significant harms and benefits for other states, yet international macroeconomic cooperation has been one of the weakest areas of international law. The lecture asked why states have had such trouble cooperating over macroeconomic issues, when they have been relatively successful at cooperation over related issues like trade. Visit the event website. |
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Thursday 3 May 2012 Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
About this lecture: The moribund state of Doha Round WTO negotiations has heightened concerns about the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on the progress of global trade liberalization. PTAs have proliferated over the past two decades. There are approximately 300 PTAs now in force, and all but one WTO member is now party to a PTA. The nature of PTAs is also rapidly evolving, with agreements encompassing issue areas beyond WTO commitments and increasingly involving developing countries. Compared with an ideal world of multilateral free trade, the welfare implications of PTAs are deeply troubling. However, considered in the actual context of persistent barriers to global trade, the theoretical and empirical literature is ambivalent on whether PTAs enhance or detract from global welfare. This is an issue unlikely to be resolved, and the debate has now moved beyond whether PTAs should be categorically opposed. PTAs are firmly entrenched in the law and politics of international trade. The question is how the relationship between these two modes of trade liberalization can best be managed to enhance complementarities and minimize conflicts. The paper identifies key challenges to multilateralism posed by the growing number and changing nature of PTAs. Lessons are drawn from the international investment regime, where, in the absence of a comprehensive multilateral treaty governing investment, over 2600 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have been formed in the past 20 years. Recommendations are made for reform at the WTO and in the institutional design of PTAs, with a view to safeguarding the multilateral trading system in the context of PTA proliferation. Visit the event website. |
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Tuesday 21 February 2012 IUS Commune How Constitutions Change: Some Surprising Findings Speaker: Professor Carlo Fusaro (University of Florence) Chair: Professor Dawn Oliver (UCL) |
About this lecture: Professor Dawn Oliver of UCL and Professor Carlo Fusaro of the University of Florence recently completed a project in which they compared the ways in which fourteen broadly liberal constitutions, and the EU 'constitution', change. The results are published in How Constitutions Change (Hart Publishing, 2011). Constitutional change can come about in a surprisingly wide range of ways: not only as a result of formal constitutional amendment procedures such as special majorities in the Parliament or referendums, but as a result of changes in the standing orders of parliaments, decisions by the courts, some of which have been rather revolutionary, changes in conventions or governmental praxis, informal agreements between constitutional bodies, or in the form of soft law - codes, guidance, protocols. Lessons can be taken from this project as to the conditions in which constitutional change can or cannot take place and the implications if the political culture in a country makes formal change impossible. Visit the event website. |
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Thursday 2 February 2012 IUS Commune Global Administrative Law and Global Governance: The Normative Agenda Speaker: Professor Richard B. Stewart (NYU Law School) Chair: Professor Joanne Scott (UCL) |
About this lecture: Many different global regulatory bodies and their domestic counterparts increasingly follow global administrative law practices of transparency, participation, reason giving and review in making decisions. This lecture will address two fundamental questions regarding this striking new development. First, can Global Administrative Law improve global governance by, for example, fostering the rule of law, securing accountability, protecting disregarded interests, or promoting democratic values? Second, and related, to what extent are the elements of global administrative law “law,” as opposed to simply good administrative practice? The answers have profound implications for the legal profession and for law’s contribution to global governance. Visit the event website. |
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Thursday 19 January 2012 IUS Commune Courts, Climate Expertise and Civic Epistemologies Speaker: Professor Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
About this lecture: The role of experts in the legal process has generally been examined from the standpoint of juridical capacity to distinguish reliable from unreliable knowledge. In an era of globalization it is more important to understand how courts evaluate the universal claims of science in relation to background cultural norms of reason, demonstration, and evidence—in short, to the collective knowledge ways that Professor Jasanoff has elsewhere termed "civic epistemologies." Using climate science as an example, she compares US and UK developments in climate law and policy to illustrate how courts reproduce the background norms of reasoning that give specificity to modern political cultures. Courts in this analysis are sites in which competing, quasi-constitutional understandings of the right relations between knowledge and power are tested and dominant ones are reaffirmed. Judicial decisions are at once markers of national difference and signposts to the epistemic habits that must be acknowledged and addressed in building common legal responses to global public problems. Visit the event website. |
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Tuesday 6 December 2011
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Friday 2 December 2011 Speakers include: Christian Alhborn (Linklaters), Edward Anderson
(Sainsbury), Tony Appleton (Proctor & Gamble), Simon Baxter (Skadden
Arps), Deven Desai (Google, Inc), Dr Peter Davis (Compass Lexecon), Dr
Amelia Fletcher (OFT), Professor Johanna Gibson (QMUL), Professor Sir Robin
Jacob (UCL Laws), Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL Laws), John Noble (British
Brands Group) and Professor Spencer Weber Waller (Loyola University Chicago) |
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Wednesday 23 November 2011 UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society Arbitration and EU Competition Law: Do Not Tilt the Balance Speaker: Dr Assimakis Komninos (White & Case, Brussels) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL |
About this event: Arbitration is a generally accepted method for the resolution of international business disputes and, for antitrust enforcement purposes, it represents another forum for the application of the competition rules. There is nowadays no doubt that EU competition law disputes can be submitted to arbitration (they are arbitrable), notwithstanding their public policy (ordre public) nature. After modernisation, exactly like courts, arbitrators have full competence to apply the whole of Article 101 TFEU, including its third paragraph. If the Commission were to issue in the future a notice or another informal instrument on arbitration, for clarity it could explicitly state the above proposition. The neglect of arbitration in Regulation 1/2003 and in the accompanying ‘Modernisation Package’ is not in itself problematic; however, the European Commission should always remain open to cooperate with arbitration tribunals either in an informal or a more formal way. In the future, the Commission could consider publishing a Notice or some Guidelines on cooperation with arbitral tribunals. Such a Notice could provide for a more structured dialogue between arbitrators and the Commission, while increasing the transparency of the whole system of cooperation. It would also raise the EU competition law awareness of arbitrators and parties, but should strive not to encroach on the fundamental principles of flexibility, confidentiality and privity of the arbitral process. Arbitration is not an organ of the Member States and therefore Articles 4(3) TEU and 16 Regulation 1/2003 are not directly binding on it. However, arbitral awards can be reviewed by EU-based State courts on public policy (ordre public) grounds, and this constitutes the ultimate and most efficient safeguard for the respectful application of the EU competition rules by arbitrators. To the extent an arbitral award may be reviewed and set aside on such grounds, the arbitrators should exercise caution when applying EU competition law and should even proceed to apply it of their own motion (ex officio). In the extreme case where an arbitral tribunal is an internal structure of a cartel and its function is to ensure compliance and resolve ‘disputes’ within the cartel, the arbitration clause itself would be illegal and the ‘arbitrators’ would be liable to fines under Article 101 TFEU. |
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Thursday 27 October 2011 IUS Commune Non Discrimination in WTO: Revisiting the ALI Study Speaker: Professor Petros Mavroidis (Columbia Law School) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos |
About this lecture: The project 'Principles of International Trade: the World Trade Organization' is an American Law Institute (ALI) study. Henrik Horn and Petros C. Mavroidis (Columbia Law School) are the Chief Reporters of the study, and Kyle W. Bagwell (Stanford, Economics), Gene M. Grossman (Princeton, Economics), Robert W. Staiger (Stanford, Economics) and Alan O. Sykes (Stanford Law School) are the reporters. Doug Irwin (Dartmouth, Economics) was an invited author. This event will briefly revisit the whole study, while focusing on the principle of non-discrimination with respect to domestic policies. About the speaker: Professor Mavroidis, who worked in the WTO's legal division in the 1990s, has written extensively on the organization and its predecessor, GATT. Judging from the increasing enrollment in Prof. Mavroidis's courses on the WTO, there is also a growing appreciation of its relevance in the world today. Prof. Mavroidis has remained active with the WTO. While teaching at the University of Neuchatel in Switzerland, he spent several days each month as a pro bono lawyer at the WTO, helping developing countries to settle disputes. Prof. Mavroidis is also involved with the American Law Institute as a chief co-reporter on the principles of WTO law, which will lead eventually to a series of legal recommendations. He says he hopes to see the WTO succeed not against the wheels of governments but as a consensus-driven organization. From summer 2011 Prof. Mavroidis will be teaching at European University Institute, Florence, Italy. |
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Wednesday 13 July 2011 UCL Centre for Law, Economics & Society Competition Law and Distributive Justice: A Critical State of Play Speaker: Professor Herbert Hovenkamp (Ben and Dorothy Willie Chair, College of Law, University of Iowa) Commentators: Professor Kai-Uwe Kühn (Chief economist, DG Competition, European Commission), Dr Amelia Fletcher (Chief Economist, OFT), Dr Jorge Padilla (Senior Managing Director and Head of Compass Lexecon Europe), Professor Richard O. Zerbe (Daniel J Evans Professor of Public Affairs, University of Washington) and Dr Ioannis Lianos (City Solicitors' Educational Trust Reader in European and Competition Law; Director, Centre for Law, Economics and Society, Faculty of Laws, UCL) |
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Wednesday 18 May 2011 IUS Commune Global Standards for National Democracies? |
Speaker: Professor Sabino Cassesse (University of Rome) Download the full programme for this series. |
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Friday 6 May 2011 IUS Commune Foundations of Private International Law in Intellectual Property |
Speaker: Professor Jürgen Basedow (Director, Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos, UCL Download the full programme for this series. |
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Friday 18 March & Saturday 19 March 2011 Speakers include: Gregory So (Under-Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Hong Kong SAR Government), John Fingleton (Chairman, UK Office of Fair Trading), William Kovacic (Commissioner, US Federal Trade Commission), Yena Lim Hua Yen (Chief Executive, Competition Commission of Singapore), Dhanendra Kumar (Chairman, Competition Commission of India), Eduardo Pérez Motta (President, Federal Competition Commission, Mexico), Zhu Zhong Liang (Anti-Monopoly Bureau, MOFCOM), Michiyo Hamada (Commissioner, Japanese Federal Trade Commission (JFTC)), Gert-Jan Koopman (Deputy Director General (State Aids), DG Comp, European Commission), Simon Milnes (Infrastructure, Competition and Consumer Division, the Australian Treasury), Frederic Jenny (Cour de Cassation and Chairman, OECD Competition Committee), Willard Tom (General Counsel, US Federal Trade Commission), Assimakis Komninos (Commissioner, Hellenic Competition Commission), Mark Whitener (Senior Counsel, Competition Law & Policy, General Electric) and many others including academics, in house and practitioner lawyers and economists. |
About this conference: The recent adoption of competition law statutes in East and South Asia, culminating with the enactment of the Indian Competition Act and the Chinese Antimonopoly Law, mark a significant development to the global business community. Merger control, the application of competition law to unilateral conduct such as distribution agreements, competition issues in intellectual property rights, and state activities in the economy create important challenges in the enforcement of competition law in these crucial markets for policymakers, multinational corporations, law firms and economic consultancies. A number of panels and roundtables will examine these issues, composed by the international and local leaders of the competition/regulatory law and M&A practice. It will explore the important topic of government restrictions to competition, including anti-competitive action by the State; state-owned enterprises and competition law; competition law and foreign state activities; self-regulation and competition law; competitive neutrality regulation; competition advocacy; the evolving role of government in markets and competition law; and the interaction between competition law and regulatory alternatives in sectors such as utilities (energy, telecoms) broadcasting regulation, financial services, digital media, healthcare, the environment. View the conference website to see the programme and speaker biographies. |
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Friday 11 February 2011 IUS Commune EU Citizenship: Post-national or Post-nationalist? On the Rottman Case (2010) and Its Implications |
Speaker: Professor Mario Savino (Universita della Tuscia di Viterbo) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos, UCL Download the full programme for this series. |
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Friday 19 November 2010 Global Competition Law Conference / UCL Centre for Law & Economics Implementing Competition Law and Policy: Global Perspectives Speakers: The speakers at this event included heads of competition authority, policy makers, academics and practitioners from around the world View the conference website to see the programme and speaker biographies. |
About this conference: The recent adoption of competition law statutes in East and South Asia, culminating with the enactment of the Indian Competition Act and the Chinese Antimonopoly Law, mark a significant development to the global business community. Merger control, the application of competition law to unilateral conduct such as distribution agreements, competition issues in intellectual property rights, and state activities in the economy create important challenges in the enforcement of competition law in these two crucial markets for policymakers, corporations, law firms and economic consultancies. A number of panels and roundtables will examine these issues, composed by the international and local leaders of the competition/regulatory law and M&A practice. |
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Monday 25 October 2010 UCL Centre for Law & Economics / Competition Law in a Global Context Lecture Competition and Development: What Competition Law Regime? Speaker: Prof. Abel Mateus (New University of Lisbon and former President, Portuguese Competition Authority) |
About this lecture: Using a law and economics model of competition law enforcement we try to answer the following questions: What characterises the effectiveness of a competition law regime? How has competition law enforcement spread around the world? What factors limit the enforcement of competition law? And finally, what regimes for competition law and what are the pre-requisites for each one? Our econometric analysis confirm that democracy, the level of education and control of vested interests are the most important pre-requisites for a competition law regime, and its improvement is crucial for having a more effective regime. Quality of public administration and the regulatory system as well as of the judicial system and reduction of corruption are sub-factors that are central to enforcement. |
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Tuesday 1 June 2010 UCL Centre for Law & Economics US Antitrust Law under the Obama Administration: One year on Speakers: Prof Eleanor Fox (New York University School of Law), Prof Andrew Gavil (Howard University School of Law), Prof Maurice Stucke (University of Tennessee College of Law), Prof Spencer Weber Waller (Institute of Consumer Antitrust Studies, Loyola University Chicago School of Law) Chair: Dr Ioannis Lianos (UCL) |
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Friday 21 May & Saturday 22 May 2010 UCL Centre for Law & Economics Conference Competition and Consumer Protection / Information Exchange Agreements |
A conference in Nicosia (Cyprus) bringing together an international panel of speakers including Bernard Amory (Jones Day), Georgios Arestis (European Court of Justice), Matthew Bennett (UK Office of Fair Trading), Antonio Capobianco (OECD), Michal Gal (University of Haifa), Judge Frederic Jenny (OECD, Cour de Cassation), Professor John Kallaugher (Latham & Watkins and UCL), Assimakis Komninos (Hellenic Competition Commission), Professor Valentine Korah (UCL), Bill Kovacic (US Federal Trade Commission), Kai Uwe Kuhn (University of Michigan), Ioannis Lianos (UCL), Paolisa Nebbia (Italian Competition Authority), Petko Nikolov (Bulgarian Competition Authority), Alison Oldale (UK Competition Commission), Aleksandra Ossowska (European Commission, DG Comp), Jorge Padilla (LECG), Savvas Papasavvas (General Court of the EU), Robbert Snelders (Cleary Gottlieb), Jules Stuyck (University of Leuven), Avishalom Tor (University of Haifa) and Thibaut Vergé (French Competition Council) |
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Wednesday 17 March 2010 UCL Institute of Global Law / Centre for Law & Economics Judicial Control of Standard Terms and European Private Law: A Law & Economics Perspective on the Draft Common Frame of Reference for a European Private Law Speaker: Dr Patrick C. Leyens (University of Hamburg) |
About this lecture With the Draft Common Frame of Reference of European Private Law updated in 2009, the European Union is striving for a uniform legal framework for judicial control of standard terms. The draft offers a chance to point out perspectives for European private law from the view of law and economics without being burdened by the constraints of current national laws or European directives. The basic issue to be dealt with is the question for the regulatory purpose of judicial clause control, which is not to be found in superior market power on the part of the user of standard terms. Rather, the informational asymmetries which cannot or can only partially be overcome by market mechanisms, are the justification for judicial intervention in the private allocation of risks via standard terms. On this basis, perspectives for the future development of the European and national understanding of the law of standard terms will be presented: we will suggest a form of clause control limited to the positive contract value-information cost-relationship together with a control cap for business contracts, an equal standard for controlling consumer and business contracts, and, a differentiating approach towards preserving a clause by adjusting the excessive risk allocation to a permissible maximum (salvatory reduction). |
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Thursday 21 January 2010 UCL Centre for Law & Economics (Public Policy Section) Net Neutrality of the Internet Speaker: Professor Nicholas Economides (NYU Stern Business School) |
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Thursday 3 December 2009 IUS Commune Protection of the Weaker Party in European Contract Law - Standardised and Individual Inferiority in Multi-Level Private Law Speaker: Dr Hannes Roesler (Senior Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute Hamburg) Chair: Professor Hugh Collins (LSE) |
About this lecture: It is a permanent challenge to accomplish freedom of contract effectively and not just to provide its formal guarantee. Indeed, 19th century private law already included elements guaranteeing the protection of this "material" freedom of contract. However, consensus has been reached about the necessity for a private law system which also provides for real chances of self-determination. An example can be found in EC consumer law. Admittedly, the law is restrained - for reasons of legal certainty - by its personal and situational typicality and bound to formal prerequisites. However, the new rules against discrimination are dominated by approaches which strongly focus on the protection of the individual. It is supplemented by national provisions, which especially counterbalance individual weaknesses. The autonomy of national law can be explained by the different traditions with regard to "social" contract law in the Member States. The differences are especially apparent regarding public policy, good fair or breach of duty before or at the time of contracting (culpa in contrahendo). They form another argument against the undifferentiated saltation from partial to total harmonisation of contract law. |
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Tuesday 13 & Wednesday 14 October 2009 Vertical Restraints in EC Competition Law: New Dynamics Conference with a a full programme of speakers including: Philip Lowe (DG, European Commission), Philip Collins (Chairman, OFT), Sir Christopher Bellamy (Linklaters LLP), Judge Nicholas Forwood (European Court of First Instance) and others |
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Friday 29 May 2009 Centre for Law and Governance in Europe / Centre for Law & Economics Competition Authorities' roundtable The Reform of Competition Authorities and the 'Modernization' of Antitrust Speakers include: Philip Collins (Chairman, Office of Fair Trading, UK), William Kovacic (Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission, US), Bruno Lasserre (Chairman, Autorité de la concurrence, France), Abel Mateus (Professor, University of Lisbon, former president of the Portuguese competition authority) Carles Esteva Mosso (Director of Policy and Strategy, DG Competition, European Commission) Chair: Frederic Jenny (Judge, Cour de Cassation, France; member of the Board, Office of Fair Trading; President, Competition Committee, OECD; Visiting Professor, UCL) |
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Thursday 7 May 2009
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About this lecture: Drawing on his experience as the first economist generalist judge at the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation), Judge Frederic Jenny will explore the following topics: if and how economic reasoning has been integrated in the Cour de cassation's judgments, since he has been appointed ? Did economic analysis make a difference in any cases? Would it help in the case of generalist judges to have court-appointed experts, or assessors or judges that have an economics background ? What would be the best method to integrate economic reasoning, taking into account the way the Cour de cassation and other generalist judges work and decide cases? Download the slides from this lecture. |
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Thursday 5 March 2009 Competition Law in a Global Context Economic expertise in courts: best practices Speaker: Judge Frederic Jenny (UCL & Supreme Court of France (Cour de Cassation)) |
About this lecture: The OECD has published a best practices report on the topic of presenting complex economic theories to judges. Judge Frederic Jenny will discuss the recommendations of the report as well as present different options in addressing the difficulty of the assessment of complex economic evidence in litigation. Download the slides from this lecture. |
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Monday 2 - 31 March 2009 CPD Course Competition, IP and Contractual Issues in the Media Industry: Law and Practice Speaker: Andrea Appella (OFT Director of International and Senior Research Fellow, UCL) |
About this course: The media industry is fast-moving and undergoing a process of development during the digital age. The objective of this course is to introduce the key features of the media industry and the significant issues arising from the application of competition and IP laws, as well as explaining the typical contractual structures in the industry. |
Page last modified on 03 oct 12 15:49
