Dear friends and colleagues,

The Centre for Business Law and Practice at the School of Law, University of Leeds and the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE), Portland, OR, USA have the pleasure of inviting you to attend their annual international competition law conference. This year’s conference will be on the topic of Competition Law in a Global Context: Analysing the Trans-Atlantic Divide.

The one-day conference will take place on 15 September 2017, and it will be preceded by Professor Pinar Akman’s Inaugural Lecture entitled ‘In Search of Principles for Abuse of Market Power’ on the evening of 14 September 2017. Both events will be held in the Liberty Building at the School of Law, University of Leeds.

A number of recent developments in the EU and the US have re-ignited interest in the question of whether competition law and policy in these two major jurisdictions are approximating or diverging. The purpose of the conference will be to provide a platform for scholars, regulators, and practitioners to present cutting-edge research and exchange insightful views on important aspects of this issue.

The conference will consist of four panels, one of which will be structured as a moderated conversation featuring current and former enforcers from the US and Europe. The other three panels will discuss Anticompetitive Agreements, Objectives of Competition Law, and Competition Law and IP, respectively.

The current programme for the conference is below. More information about the conference can be found here, and about the Inaugural Lecture here. If you are a practitioner from the UK, the conference has been approved for 7 CPD/continuing competence points. Both events are free to attend, but require registration. You must register separately for each event. If you plan to attend, please register on Eventbrite here for the conference and here for the Inaugural Lecture.

We look forward to seeing you at the conference and lecture. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Peter Whelan (p.whelan@leeds.ac.uk).

With best wishes,

Prof Pinar Akman (Leeds)

Geoffrey Manne (ICLE)

Dr Konstantinos Stylianou (Leeds)

Dr Peter Whelan (Leeds)

       International Conference on

Competition Law in a Global Context: Analysing the Trans-Atlantic Divide

School of Law, University of Leeds

15 September 2017

Organized by

The Centre for Business Law and Practice, School of Law, University of Leeds and

The International Center for Law & Economics

Programme

09.15-09.30: Welcome from the Head of School, Professor Alastair Mullis

09.30-11.00: Panel 1: Anticompetitive Agreements

Moderator: Prof Pinar Akman, University of Leeds

Speakers:

·         Dr Marek Martyniszyn, Queen’s University Belfast

·         Prof Maurice Stucke, University of Tennessee

·         Prof Peter Whelan, University of Leeds

11.00-11.15: Break

11.15-12.45: Panel 2: A Conversation with Competition Law Enforcers

Moderator: Dr John Temple Lang, Trinity College Dublin

Speakers:

·         Rainer Becker, Deputy Head of Unit, Policy and Strategy Directorate, DG Competition, European Commission

·         Tad Lipsky, Former Acting Director, Bureau of Competition, US Federal Trade Commission

·         Dr Philip Marsden, Senior Director, Case Decision Groups, UK Competition and Markets Authority

·         Dr Arvid Fredenberg, Chief Economist, Swedish Competition Authority

12.45-13.45: Lunch

13.45-15.15: Panel 3: Objectives of Competition Law

Moderator: Geoffrey Manne, International Center for Law and Economics

Speakers:

·         Prof Ariel Ezrachi, Oxford University

·         Judge Douglas Ginsburg, Senior Judge, US Court of Appeals, DC Circuit

·         Dr Anne Layne-Farrar, Charles River Associates

15.15-15.30: Break

15.30-17.00: Panel 4: Competition Law and IP

Moderator: Dr Konstantinos Stylianou, University of Leeds

Speakers:

·         Dr Alan Devlin, Latham & Watkins LLP