Valentine Korah Fund

Remembering Professor Valentine Korah

The UCL Faculty of Laws invites you to honour Professor Valentine Korah’s legacy by contributing to a special fund established in her memory.

Why Your Contribution Matters

Professor Valentine Korah, who passed away in July 2023, left a lasting legacy. She was the first female law professor at UCL and one of the first three in the UK. She was one of the first women in the UK to be appointed to a Chair in Law and devoted her career to competition law, becoming a leading academic in the European Community and Competition Law and comparative/international antitrust.

Your support helps ensure that her influence continues to inspire future generations of legal scholars and practitioners.

Academic Excellence

Professor Korah was one of the first to engage with an interdisciplinary (law and economics) approach to competition law in her teaching and research. She earned her LLB, LLM, and PhD at UCL and went on to teach and research competition law, establishing the first postgraduate course on the subject.

Keeping this tradition and her legacy alive, UCL Laws continues to offer a number of competition law courses which take a transdisciplinary perspective, drawing on law, economics, sociology, political science, and complexity science.

She taught her students to understand and critically evaluate the rules, not just to memorise them. Even years after taking her courses at UCL, many of her former students, who have become academics, lawyers or judges, speak of her with respect and affection.

Her story is profoundly linked to the history of UCL Faculty of Laws, and we are honoured to have had her as a student, alumna, professor and friend.

Influence on Policy

Her critiques of the European Commission’s approach to competition law led to significant policy changes. Her inaugural lecture at UCL influenced EEC competition policy, culminating in the European Commission’s 2000 Guidelines on vertical restraints.

Professor Korah wrote extensively on competition law and the European Community, including her most recent book together with Professor Ioannis Lianos (UCL Laws) and Paolo Siciliani (Bank of England), “Competition Law: Analysis, Cases, & Materials” (Oxford University Press, 2019) which has become a point of reference in the field.

Global Impact

Professor Korah built a global community of competition law scholars and practitioners. She taught at the College of Europe in Bruges, Fordham University School of Law, and travelled extensively, extending her influence worldwide.

Practical Application

Her policy-oriented research and legal insights significantly benefited the legal and economic community. Her work on distribution agreements and technology transfer arrangements remains a vital resource.

Give to the Valentine Korah Laws Memorial Fund

The Valentine Korah Laws Memorial Fund was established to honour Professor Korah’s life, influence, and dedication to the field of competition law. Your gift will continue to support the opportunities listed below, each one reflecting the spirit and legacy she embodied at UCL Laws.

This scholarship honours Professor Korah's life and one of her proudest achievements: teaching. It helps alleviate financial pressures, remove barriers to education, and reduce the need for part-time work. With greater financial security, scholars can connect with their peers and make the most of the opportunities offered by a dynamic university environment, in a global city like London.

Every year, the Valentine Korah Lecture brings world-leading legal intellectuals in competition law and policy to UCL Laws. Support for this initiative enables students and the wider community to engage with leading practitioners and scholars in the field.

This prize is awarded annually to an outstanding undergraduate student who has demonstrated exceptional work throughout their course. A gift ensures the prize can be awarded each year, with multi-year support allowing several students to benefit.

A gift can support the creation of a new academic post dedicated to advancing world-leading research and shaping future scholarship in competition law or policy, continuing the intellectual trajectory shaped by Professor Korah.