The 21st Conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law

The Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) will hold its 21st Annual Conference from Wednesday 1 July to Friday 3 July 2026 at University College London and King’s College London.

The conference is organised jointly by University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL), and supported by Queen Mary University London and Cambridge University. Members of the organising committee include:

• Professor Ioannis Lianos (UCL, chair);
• Professor Chris Townley (KCL);
• Dr Despoina Mantzari (UCL);
• Dr Andriani Kalintiri (KCL);
• Dr Stavros Makris (UCL);
• Professor Ioannis Kokkoris (Queen Mary);
• Professor Oke Odudu (Cambridge); and
• Dr Maria Ioannidou (Queen Mary).

Call for papers

ASCOLA members are invited to submit proposals no later than 26 January 2026. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 31 March 2026. 

Focus Areas
While submissions on all aspects of competition law and policy are welcome, the 2026 conference will place particular emphasis on:

• Digital markets, ecosystems, and innovation
• Resilience as a competition law goal or the resilience of competition law
• Public and private enforcement of competition law/digital regulation at the multi-national scale and issues of global governance

Three Submission Streams

Submissions on any topic in the field of competition law and policy are welcome. To reflect the breadth of ASCOLA scholarship, the conference will feature three distinct submission streams. Please observe the requirements for each stream, especially
regarding word count.

• Stream 1: Academic papers. 
  Open to all ASCOLA members. Submissions must be unpublished at the time of submission and should be of journal length (maximum 20,000 words).
• Stream 2: Early career researchers. 
  Open to PhD candidates and scholars awarded their PhD in 2021 or later. Submissions may be Academic papers (as defined in Stream 1) or a chapter of a PhD thesis. Thesis chapters should include a contextual introduction so their place within the overall project is clear. Each paper selected will be assigned a dedicated commentator.
• Stream 3: Early project ideas. 
  For ASCOLA members developing new research projects. Submissions should consist of a short abstract (maximum 2 pages). Longer abstracts will be considered under Stream 1. Do not send extended abstracts of papers. This stream is for original project ideas at an early stage. Selected contributors will present their projects in progress at the conference.

Submissions should be made via the form on the conference website. 

DOWNLOAD THE FULL CALL FOR PAPERS SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS. 

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Booking information, fees and social events taking place during the conference will be made available on 31 March 2026. Please check back for more information at that time.