Prof Pablo Ibanez Colomo

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Law and Finance, MSc in Regulation and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is freely available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. It does not require permission. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process. For information on controlled access courses, including eligibility, application processes, deadlines, and departmental contact details, please refer to the Controlled Access Courses webpage.

How to apply: Priority will be given initially to LLM, MSc Regulation and MSc Law and Finance students on a first-come-first-served allocation.

Spaces permitting, requests from all other students will be processed on the same first-come-first-served allocation from 10am on Thursday 1 October 2026

By submitting an application, students are confirming that they meet any pre-requisites specified. Providing an additional written statement will not aid a student's chances of being accepted onto a course, and statements are not read.

Deadline for application: Not applicable

For queries contact: Law.llm@lse.ac.uk

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.

The course provides an overview of the regulation of network industries. It encompasses not only sector-specific regimes but also the ways in which competition law contributes to shaping those industries.

Instead of focusing on a particular jurisdiction, it revolves around the main underlying issues. The EU-UK system provides the basis for class discussions. Examples from the US will be used where relevant.

The module is divided into the fundamental legal and economic themes that cut across the regulation of network industries. These include issues such as access to the network (in the telecommunications, energy and transport sectors), interconnection (and interoperability) as well as the mechanisms to guarantee a universal service and ensure social protection. It also deals with the transformations that competition law has undergone when responding to the challenges raised by anticompetitive conduct and growing market concentration in the network industries. 

20 hours of seminars in the Autumn Term.
2 hours of seminars in the Spring Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

This course will have two hours of teaching content each week in Autumn Term and may include visits from experts based at regulatory authorities in the UK and the EU. Students will usually have two additional hours in the Spring Term. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Autumn Term.

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

• Christopher Decker, Modern Economic Regulation (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press 2023)
• Niamh Dunne, Competition Law and Economic Regulation: Making and Managing Markets (Cambridge University Press 2015)
• Christopher Jones (ed), EU Energy Law (Claeys & Casteels 2020)
• Tony Prosser and Luke Butler, ‘Rail Franchises, Competition and Public Service’ (2018) 81 Modern Law Review 23
• Oz Shy, The Economics of Network Industries (Cambridge University Press 2001)

Additional Reading:

• Robert Baldwin, Martin Cave and Margin Lodge, Understanding Regulation (3rd edn, Oxford University Press 2026)
• Leigh Hancher, ‘Community, State and Market’ in Paul Craig and Grainne de Burca (eds), The Evolution of EU Law (Oxford University Press 1999) 721-743
• Stuart Minor Benjamin, Barak D Richman and James B Speta, Internet and Telecommunications Regulation (2nd edn, Carolina Academic Press 2023)
• Stephen Breyer, Regulation and Its Reform (Harvard University Press 1984)
• Pierre Larouche, Competition and Regulation in European Telecommunications (Hart Publishing 2000)
• Christopher Jones (ed), EU Energy Law, Volume I - The Internal Market (Claeys & Casteels 2020)

Written test (100%).

This assessment will be held under exam conditions and will take place in the January exam period.