Ascola is organized as a democratic association involving a General Assembly and a Board – including a Chair. The Assembly convenes each year. It elects the Board, including the Chair, of the Association, for a term of two years. The organization is described in a Charter.

The Chair
The chair is currently Rupprecht Podszun – a professor at the University of Düsseldorf, Germany. He was elected in 2023 as the successor of Michal Gal (University of Haifa) who had held the office of President since 2016.

For more information on the history of ASCOLA click here.

The Board
The Board is composed of members elected by the members of the association. The composition partly reflects the geographic coverage of the association. Elections are organized on a regular basis. For these elections members can suggest applications.

Composition of the Board

Executive Committee as elected in 2023:

• • Rupprecht Podszun (Düsseldorf), President
  • Peter Picht (Zürich), Vice President for Finances
  • Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong), Vice President
  • Magali Eben (Glasgow), Vice President
  • Giorgio Monti (Tilburg), Vice President
  • Wendy Ng (Melbourne), Vice President

Members of the Larger Board (as elected in 2023):

• • Zeynep Ayata (Turkey)
  • Mor Bakhoum (Senegal)
  • Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong)
  • Fabiana Di Porto (Italy)
  • Josef Drexl (Germany) (President of ASCOLA 2003-2013)
  • Magali Eben (UK)
  • Valeria Falce (Italy)
  • Harry First (US)
  • Michal Gal (Israel) (President of ASCOLA 2016-2023)
  • Juan David Gutiérrez (Colombia)
  • Vikas Kathuria (India)
  • Wolfgang Kerber (Germany)
  • Ioannis Lianos (Greece)
  • Bjorn Lundqvist (Sweden)
  • Francisco Marcos (Spain)
  • Giorgio Monti (Netherlands)
  • Wendy Ng (Australia)
  • Paul Nihoul (Belgium) (President of ASCOLA 2013-2016)
  • Jasminka Pecotic Kaufman (Croatia)
  • Peter Picht (Switzerland)
  • Rupprecht Podszun (Germany) (President of ASCOLA since 2023)
  • Heike Schweitzer (Germany)
  • Danny Sokol (USA)
  • Masako Wakui (Japan)

The organiser of the annual conference is co-opted to the board.

In 2023, the ASCOLA Board appointed three Directors for special projects:

• • Fabiana Di Porto (Salento) – Director for Best Junior Paper Award
  • Jurgita Malinauskaite (Brunel) – Director for Mentoring
  • Viktoria Robertson (Vienna/Graz) – Director for Scholarships

If you wish to join ASCOLA, please click here. If you wish to get in touch with the Executive Board, please write an e-mail to team   [at]   ascola.org or address the board members individually.

 

ASCOLA has appointed Regional Chairs. You find more information here.

 

If you wish to get in touch with the regional chapters of ASCOLA please address these scholars and try to follow the ongoing activities.

 

The General Assembly
The General Assembly consists of all members of the association. All members have a similar vote. No difference is made depending on origin of members, or the fee paid by them. As a reminder, fees are discounted for younger academics and for academics coming from lower-income regions. The General Assembly takes place in the course of annual conferences.

 

Are you interested in joining too?
Get more information here.

18th ASCOLA Conference 2023

The 18th Conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) was held in Athens, Greece, from 29 June to 1 July 2023. Our local hosts were the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens with Professors Alexandra Mikroulea and Manos Mastromanolis, in cooperation with the Hellenic Competition Commission under te leadership of Professor Ioannis Lianos.

The Call for Papers had been published in September 2023, submissions were due by 27 January 2023. The conference website can be found here: https://ascola2023uoa.epant.gr/.

The highlight of the conference were of course the numerous panels with presentations of scholarly work – the papers had been chosen in a peer review process. The Best Junior Paper Award 2023 was won by Elias Deutscher (University of East Anglia) & Stavros Makris (University of Glasgow) for their paper “Merger Control and Sustainability”. The keynote speech was given by Professor Herbert Hovenkamp (University of Pennsylvania) who is said to be the most cited antitrust professor in the world. He spoke on “Markets and Gatekeepers”. In the “Economist Debate”, Olivier Guersent (Director General for Competition, EU), Tomasso Valletti (Imperial College London, former Chief Economist of EU DG Competition) and Chrysovalantou Milliou (Hellenic Competition Commission) discussed economic challenges for competition. In a TED Talk Session, hosted by Rupprecht Podszun (University of Düsseldorf) younger scholars presented their research in gripping 90-seconds-talks. The inspiring final session looked into the production of knowledge and the engagement of academics with enforcers and policy-makers. Social events included the 20th birthday party of ASCOLA in the Benaki Museum (with a speech given by former President Paul Nihoul), a trip to the scenic Sounion and to the Acropolis Museum.

ASCOLA also held elections. After seven years in office Michal Gal (University of Haifa) stepped down as President. The Assembly thanked her with standing ovations for her excellent work over the years. Her successor is Rupprecht Podszun (University of Düsseldorf). Peter Picht (Zurich, for finances), Thomas Cheng (Hong Kong), Magali Eben (Glasgow), Giorgio Monti (Tilburg) and Wendy Ng (Melbourne) will serve as Vice Presidents. New members were also elected to the larger board of ASCOLA.

The next ASCOLA conference will be held in Würzburg, Germany, upon invitation by Professor Florian Bien and Dr Björn-Christian Becker on 4-6 July 2024. Photos an be seen in the photos gallery.

17th ASCOLA Conference 2022

The Academic Society for Competition Law held its 17th Annual Conference in Porto, Portugal, from 30 June 2022 to 2 July 2022. The organisation was led by Sofia Pais, professor at Católica University in Porto, and her team and the Board of ASCOLA. 100 papers, picked on a peer review basis from a much larger number of submissions, were presented in 29 panels! U.S. Judge Diane Wood gave a keynote speech, introduced by Margarida Matos Rosa, the head of the Portuguese competition agency. Extra-panels dealt with mentoring and with the question “how not to present a paper”. Francesco Ducci won the Best Junior Paper Award. More than 130 participants from around the world took part in the perfectly organised event and enjoyed the intense discussions and personal meetings after years of video conferencing.  Again, ASCOLA proved to be THE place to showcase your work on competition law & policy!

Conference Website:

ASCOLA 2022: 17th annual conference | FD-PORTO-WEBSITE (ucp.pt)

ASCOLA2022 Programme

Ascola Call for Papers 2022

 

16^th ASCOLA Conference 2021

The 16th annual event of Ascola, #ASCOLA2021, was not held in Porto (Portugal) as had originally planned. Instead, the event was hosted virtually via Zoom from 1-3 July 2021. Please find the Conference Website with all relevant information here. The organisation of the digital event lied with the ASCOLA Executive Board Michal Gal, Rupprecht Podszun and Peter Picht (plus their respective teams). The Porto team has provided valuable support, in particular in connection with selecting papers. Due to the record number of submissions we undertook a double blind peer review process of papers. Keynote speaker of the conference was Carl Shapiro. Side events included an Economic Expert Panel on innovation with Monika Schnitzer, Richard Gilbert and Tommaso Valletti as well as a panel on “Career Challenges” and panels on how a paper is born and how to win grants. In main and annex session more than 120 papers were presented.

Competition Law in Vaccination

The ASCOLA Regional Chapter UK presents the next season of virtual talks over lunch, starting 17 March 2021: Competition law in vaccination! To join the mailing list and to be up to date with what is going on, please look out for ASCOLA UK on Twitter and LinkedIn or write to Or Brook and Magali Eben directly.

For other events organised by our regional chapters please follow their activities on social media. There is a list of all Regional Chapters here that are active on social media, and you may look at the colleagues heading the regional chapters here.

 

Competition Law in Isolation Talks

After lockdowns and travel restrictions set in, the ASCOLA UK Chapter under the leadership of Magali Eben and Or Brook started a series of virtual talks called “Competition Law in Isolation”. This format developed to be an ace opportunity to showcase ongoing work and to discuss current issues of competition law.

Further competition talks have in the meantime been organised by other Regional Chapters of ASCOLA. We are happy and grateful for such a well-functioning network! Please check out the announcements on LinkedIn and Twitter or address the heads of the Regional Chapters for being included in the mailing lists.

15^th ASCOLA Conference

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Annual ASCOLA (Virtual) Conference
The 15th ASCOLA Conference took place as a virtual event from June 25– 27 June 2020 with around 100 talks over three days, scheduled so as to accomodate different time zones. A keynote address was given by the EU Commission’s Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager. Several special events, like book presentations, an economist panel and a panel for young scholars with tips for a successful career by distinguished professors made this Virtual Conference a memorable experience. It was organised on a virtual basis due to the 2020 pandemic when travelling was not an option. The organising team was constituted from the universities of Düsseldorf, Haifa and Zurich.
For more information, videos and papers from the conference click here. A report on the ASCOLA conference was published here.

14^th ASCOLA Conference

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Aix-en-Provence Faculty of Law
The 14th ASCOLA conference took place at Aix-en-Provence on June 27– 29 June 2019. Professor David Bosco and his team had invited the ASCOLA community to Southern France where we experienced one of the hottest conferences ever. Temperatures on the outside were somewhat matched by the intense discussions inside. The general topic was “Challenges to Assumptions at the Basis of Competition Law”. Apart from this general theme, breakout sessions were held on wider competition law issues. The conference also featured an economist session, a session on teaching and a visit to a vineyard.

You may a find a report here.

 

Find out about our Declaration of Ethics.

You can also read about our ASCOLA Book Series.

Here we provide additional teaching material.

Here is the link to Prof. Eldar Haber’s 2022 talk on how to turn a good paper into a good presentation.