LL4AF      Half Unit
Principles of Global Competition Law

This information is for the 2023/24 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Niamh Dunne

Availability

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Regulation and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

 

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

Course content

This module provides an overview of the major features of contemporary competition (antitrust) law. Competition law comprises a set of legal rules which aim to control the socially-harmful exercise of private market power, whether through hardcore cartels, single firm monopoly behaviour, or mergers that reduce structural competition. This is a discipline that has undergone a remarkable process of expansion in recent decades, and competition laws are now actively enforced in around 130 jurisdictions worldwide.

Instead of focusing on a particular regime, the module puts an emphasis on the fundamental debates underlying the adoption and evolution of this field, addressed in comparative perspective. Examples drawn primarily from EU and US competition law will be used by way of illustration. We will also consider on-going and often contentious debates in contemporary competition law, including the question of the optimal goals for competition enforcement, the appropriate role for economic analysis in this task, and the scope for regional divergences.

The course assumes no prior knowledge of competition law or economics, but aims to equip students to understand and analyse the key substantive elements found within most competition regimes. These include:

• Competition policy and basic concepts of antitrust economics;

• Anti-competitive agreements, including cartels and vertical restraints;

• Unilateral conduct rules, including refusal to deal and exclusionary practices; and

• Merger control, including horizontal and vertical mergers.

Teaching

This course will have two hours of teaching content each week in Autumn Term. Several optional supplementary lectures will be provided to address more technical concepts in greater detail. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

Formative coursework

All students are expected to produce one 1,500 word formative essay during the course.

Indicative reading

  • Whish & Bailey, Competition Law (10th ed., 2021);
  • Jones & Sufrin, EU Competition Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed., 2019);
  • Roger van den Bergh, Comparative Competition Law and Economics (2017); and
  • Hovenkamp, The Antitrust Enterprise (2005).

Assessment

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the spring exam period.

Key facts

Department: Law School

Total students 2022/23: 87

Average class size 2022/23: 29

Controlled access 2022/23: Yes

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information

Course selection videos

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.

Personal development skills

  • Communication
  • Specialist skills