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Hybrid | The Europeanisation (and Looming Brexitification) of UK Competition Law

27 March 2025, 1:00 pm–2:00 pm

worms eye view of buildings

This lecture will be delivered by Professor Niamh Dunne, as part of the Current Legal Problems Lecture Series 2024-25

Event Information

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Organiser

UCL Laws

Speaker: Prof Niamh Dunne (LSE)

Chair: TBC

About the lecture 

UK competition law stands at a crossroads. After half a century of adaptation towards the EU archetype, the Brexit process has formally unmoored the UK rules from their European influences. The question is thus whether, and in what direction, UK competition law is likely to evolve away from the EU rules in future. This lecture will look backwards and forwards, in order to understand the current UK competition framework and to explore its prospective development. The lecture will first trace the evolution of the UK rules from a common law vision of market freedom focused on the interests of traders, to a statutory regime that regulated rather than outlawed anticompetitive practices, and finally a modernised competition framework that adopts the law enforcement paradigm of the EU rules. It will then turn to the future, evaluating the impact of both the centrifugal and centripetal forces that could alternatively set UK competition law on a more globally influenced or domestically oriented path. In doing so, the lecture aims to explore not just the past, present and future of UK competition law, but also to enhance our understanding of the process of Europeanisation of domestic laws—and possible de-Europeanisation in future.

About the speaker

Niamh Dunne is a Professor, teaching in the areas of competition and EU law. Before coming to LSE in September 2015, she was a Lecturer at King's College London, and a Fellow in Law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. She has also worked in competition enforcement for the Competition Authority of Ireland, and as a consultant in competition policy, primarily for the OECD. She holds law degrees from the University of Cambridge (BA, PhD), NYU School of Law (LLM) and King's College London (MA). She is qualified as a solicitor in Ireland and in England & Wales (both non-practising), and as an attorney in New York State.

About Current Legal Problems

The Current Legal Problems (CLP) lecture series and annual volume was established over fifty five years ago at the Faculty of Laws, University College London and is recognised as a major reference point for legal scholarship.

Book your place

You can attend this event in-person at UCL Faculty of Laws (Bentham House, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG) or alternatively you can join via a live stream.

Please make sure you choose the correct ticket when booking your place.

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Image by Alex wong from Unplash

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