Chillin'Competition

Our friend and colleague Rubén Perea Molleda passed away five years ago just when he was about to start a promising career in competition law following his graduation from the College of Europe. Rubén remains very present in the memory of everyone who had the chance to cross paths with him. In his memory, we created a competition law writing award. Today we are launching its 5th edition.

As in previous editions, the winning paper will be published in a special issue of the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice, together with a selection of the best submissions received (the JECLAP special issue featuring the winner and finalists of the 4th edition will be out very soon; the articles are already available as a pre-publication).

Who can participate?

You may participate if you remain below the age of 30 by the submission date (i.e., if you were born after 15 October 1994). Undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, public officials and practitioners are all invited to participate.

What papers can be submitted?

You may submit a single-author unpublished paper which is not under consideration elsewhere. The paper may be specifically prepared for the award or originally drafted as an undergraduate or postgraduate dissertation or paper.

The paper must not exceed 15,000 words (footnotes included; no bibliography needed).

Prior to submission, please make sure your paper follows the JECLAP House Style rules, which can be found here.

How to submit?

Please submit the paper via this link: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jeclap.

IMPORTANT: As you go through the submission process, make sure that in Step 5, you answer YES to the question “Is this for a special issue?”, and indicate that your submission relates to the Rubén Perea Award.

What is the DEADLINE?

Papers have to be submitted by 23.59 (Brussels time) on 15 October 2024.

Many of you have approached us in the past few months asking whether we had considered launching a podcast. Since it is a great idea, we thought we would give it a tentative go. Alfonso will be coming over to LSE Law School on 27st June (Thursday of next week). We will be starting the live podcast at 16.00 London time/17.00 Brussels time. The recording will be made available later.

Make sure you save the date! For this first live podcast, we will build our discussion around a forthcoming paper of mine, which deals with the notion of restriction by object (entitled ‘Restrictions by object under Article 101(1) TFEU: from dark art to administrable framework‘).

We have been talking about restrictions by object for the best part of two decades, and the time feels right to present, in a structured manner, the contributions made by the Court, including the clarifications provided in recent rulings like Superleague (if you were wondering, the paper concludes that the case law provides the basis for an analytical framework that is both administrable and predictable).

If you would like to join (online) the live Zoom seminar, feel free to register here. Once you register, you will receive an email that will allow you to access the livestream on the 27th.

I will be sharing the article in the coming days, so we can have a proper discussion during the Q&A. Do not hesitate to get in touch with any questions, comments or suggestions. We look forward to meeting many of you on the day (albeit virtually)!

Professor Heike Schweitzer, one of Europe’s most prominent and influential competition law scholars, passed away earlier this week. She has left an indelible mark in law and policy discussions as a mentor to generations of students and a frequent adviser to agencies and governments.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with, and learn from, her will miss Heike dearly. At the same time, she will very much remain a presence in our lives.

I would frequently share my thoughts with Heike (I recently wrote that every conversation with her is memorable). Even when I did not, her critical eye was the benchmark against which I assessed the quality of my work. ‘What would Heike think?’ has been a guide since we first met back in 2006. I do not see how this will ever change.

The qualities for which she will be remembered are obvious to anyone who spent more than five minutes with her. The first thing that comes to mind is the natural authority she displayed, unassumingly, in any conversation. It came from her in-depth knowledge and her ability to spot the crucial issue in any discussion (all of that peppered, as I learnt over time, with her sense of humour and quick wit).

Heike’s intellect and clarity of thought allowed her to engage meaningfully with scholars and professionals from a wide variety of persuasions. Her convictions and ideas never stood in the way of a respectful exchange of views. Those of us who were fortunate enough to study under her supervision benefitted immensely from these virtues: we always felt we would get to write our own thesis, not somebody else’s.

Any portrait of Heike would be incomplete without mentioning her generosity. Many will point out how hard-working she was. She was precisely because of how much she gave back to the community.

Her appointment as a Special Adviser to Commissioner Vestager on digital competition policy or her crucial contribution to Germany’s foremost competition law treatise are just two of many examples. As an academic at heart, however, Heike’s students always were the primary beneficiaries of her generous spirit.

May she rest in peace.