History of ASCOLA

ASCOLA, the Academic Society for Competition Law, was founded in Munich, at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, in 2003. Professor Josef Drexl, director of the Max Planck Institute, became ASCOLA’s first chair. Ascola was established as a non-profit association under German law (“eingetragener Verein”). On this page you find information about the founding members of ASCOLA, the conferences, the executives of ASCOLA and of members who were honoured with an Award for their Distinguished Service to ASCOLA or with a Best Junior Paper Award.

Founding members of ASCOLA

  • Jürgen Basedow (Hamburg),
  • Peter Behrens (Hamburg),
  • Ulf Bernitz (Stockholm),
  • Beatriz Conde Gallego (Munich),
  • Josef Drexl (Munich),
  • Stefan Enchelmaier (Munich),
  • Andreas Heinemann (Lausanne),
  • Clifford A. Jones (Gainesville),
  • Tsvetana Kamenova (Sofia),
  • Ernst-Joachim Mestmäcker (Hamburg),
  • Joël Monéger (Paris),
  • Karl-Nikolaus Peifer (Bochum),
  • Junko Shibata (Kagawa),
  • Luboš Tichy (Prague),
  • Hanns Ullrich (Florence),
  • Gabriela von Wallenberg (Regensburg) and
  • Wang Xiaoye (Bejing).

ASCOLA Conferences

In the following years after founding the association, ASCOLA organised conferences and workshops in different places around the world. Some of the conference papers were presented as books in the ASCOLA series with publisher Edward Elgar.

Here is a list of conferences:

No.

Year

Place

Local Organisers

1

2004

Florence, Italy

Hanns Ullrich

2

2006

Paris, France

Laurence Idot, Joël Monéger

3

2008

Zurich, Switzerland

Roger Zäch, Andreas Heinemann, Andreas Kellerhals

4

2009

Washington D.C., USA

Warren S. Grimes, Clifford A. Jones, Rudolph J.R. Peritz, Edward T. Swaine

5

2010

Bonn, Germany

Daniel Zimmer

6

2011

London, UK

Richard Whish, Chris Townley

7

2012

Sao Paolo, Brazil

Vicente Bagnoli

8

2013

Lecce, Italy

Fabiana di Porto

9

2014

Warsaw, Poland

Tadeusz Skoczny

10

2015

Tokyo, Japan

Iwakazu Takahashi

11

2016

Leiden, The Netherlands

Pieter Van Cleynenbreugel

12

2017

Stockholm, Sweden

Bjorn Lundqvist

13

2018

New York, USA

Harry First

14

2019

Aix-en-Provence, France

David Bosco

15

2020

Virtual Conference*

Michal Gal, Peter Picht, Rupprecht Podszun

16

2021

Virtual Conference

Michal Gal, Peter Picht, Rupprecht Podszun

17

2022

Porto, Portugal

Sofia Pais

18

2023

Athens, Greece

Alexandra Mikroulea, Manos Mastromanolis, Ioannis Lianos

 

* You can find various videos from the 2020 Conference on YouTube.

Impressions from past ASCOLA conferences

You can find more photos in the photos section!

Members of the Executive Board of ASCOLA

The day-to-day business of the Academic Society for Competition Law is run by an Executive Board of three, the President, the Vice-President and the Treasurer. Of course, they are supported by the Board of ASCOLA. The board is elected by the members.

Presidents of Ascola

  • Josef Drexl (2003-2013)
  • Paul Nihoul (2013-2016)
  • Michal Gal (2016-2023)
  • Rupprecht Podszun (since 2023)

Vice Presidents of Ascola

  • Joël Monéger (2003-2015)
  • Daniel Zimmer (2015-2016)
  • Heike Schweitzer (2016-2019)
  • Rupprecht Podszun (2019-2023)
  • Thomas Cheng, Magali Eben, Giorgio Monti, Wendy Ng and Peter Picht (since 2023)

Treasurers of Ascola

  • Beatriz Conde (2003-2011)
  • Rupprecht Podszun (2011-2017)
  • Axel Walz (2017-2019)
  • Peter Picht (since 2019, since 2023: Vice President for Finance)

Award for Distinguished Services to ASCOLA

Outstanding members of ASCOLA who served the community particularly well may be honoured with an award that recognises their special contribution. The Award for Distinguished Services to ASCOLA, established in 2013, was presented to the following persons:

  • Eleanor Fox (2015)
  • Hanns Ullrich (2016)
  • Joël Monéger (2017)
  • Tadeusz Skoczny (2019)

ASCOLA Best Junior Paper Award

Members presenting papers at ASCOLA conferences may win the Best Junior Paper Award if they are under the age of 35. This award, established in 2013, was won by the following scholars:

  • Konstantina Bania (2017)
  • John Newman (2018)
  • Viktoria Robertson (2019)
  • Andrew McLean (2020)
  • Xingyu Yan (2021)
  • Francesco Ducci (2022)
  • Elias Deutscher & Stavros Makris (2023)