Chillin'Competition

Rubén Perea passed away on 1 April 2020 at 25 years old.

He was a smart, kind, formidable guy who had just completed his LL.M at the College of Europe and accepted an offer to work as a competition lawyer at Garrigues in Brussels. He bravely fought for months against cancer, a fight he ultimately could not win because the Covid-19 delayed the surgery on which we all had our hopes.  The grace and courage he showed in these past few months revealed the kind of person that he was, that he would have been, and that we have tragically lost.

In his memory, we have decided to create the annual “Rubén Perea Award” for the best paper (master thesis, research paper or article) in competition/state aid law written by lawyers, economists or students under 30 years old.

The paper will be published in the Journal of European Competition Law and Practice. The winners will be announced on the blog, where they will have the opportunity to present their work in a guest post. If the circumstances allow it, an award will be presented at our next Chillin’Competition conference.

We call on university professors and senior lawyers or economists to encourage their students and younger colleagues to apply. The deadline for submission will be 15 September, so you can save the date. More details will follow soon.

We are also exploring the possibility of funding a scholarship to pursue EU studies in Ruben’s memory, and we hope to publish more info on this soon. Should anyone like to contribute to this initiative, please drop us a line.