Competition law is a classic field of economic analysis of law. This is largely due to the fact that competition law uses terms such as market, price, and competition and must therefore rely on economic knowledge and analyses. In the United States, economic analysis has greatly influenced not just the antitrust law scholarship but also judicial decisions and agency enforcement. Antitrust law and economics is based on the traditional paradigm of neoclassical economics, which relies on the assumption that the market players, i.e. consumers and producers, are rational. This approach to competition law was later received in Europe under the banner of a “more economic approach”.
For the past two decades, Behavioural Law and Economics which sets out to generate better insights to legal phenomena by providing economic models with more realistic psychological foundations and to offer a multitude of applications in legislation and legal adjudication, has challenged the traditional economic approach to law generally and, more recently, to competition law specifically.
It is the aim of this conference to further develop the traditional as well as the behavioural approach to competition law and to apply these approaches to a variety of timely issues. Relevant topics may concern, for instance, the intersection of competition law and technology markets (e.g. the recent Google Search decision); the interplay of competition law and intellectual property generally and patents specifically; the economics of networks and particularly two-sided platforms; the competition law implications of increasingly large horizontal shareholdings by financial intermediaries; competition and privacy in the new economy and more.
The contributions will be published in the academic book series “Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship” (http://www.springer.com/series/11927).
Schedule
- 1 September 2017: submission of proposals
- 1 October 2017: selection of proposals
- 28 February 2018: submission of draft papers
- 13–14 April 2018: presentation of papers at the conference
- 15 May 2018: submission of definite papers
- Fall 2018: publication of volume
Submission of Proposals
If you would like to submit a paper for this conference, you are kindly requested to send a brief description of your topic (1-2 pages) and a short CV no later than 1 September 2017 to Prof. Dr. iur. Klaus Mathis (klaus.mathis@unilu.ch).
Speakers’ Expenses
Speakers’ expenses for accommodation and travel to and from the conference will be covered within reason (economy class).
Organization
Organized by Professor Dr. Klaus Mathis of the University of Lucerne, in collaboration with Professor Dr. Avishalom Tor of the University of Notre Dame Law School.