Seminar | EU & Competition

Arbitrating Competition Law Issues: A European and US Perspective
Monday 12th June 2006
at Large Pension Room, The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, 8 South Square, Gray's Inn, London WC1R 5ET, United Kingdom

We are pleased to announce the first conference on arbitrating competition law issues organised by the International Arbitration Group of SJ Berwin LLP in co-operation with the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL).

This conference will focus on the interrelation between international arbitration and competition law in the widest sense of the word. It will cover both the continental and the transatlantic approach to arbitrating competition law as well as merger control issues. Specific attention will be given to the nascence of the so-called ex officio duty on part of the international arbitrator to raise competition law issues in order to secure the enforceability of his award within the European Union and its development since the ECJ's seminal ruling in Eco Swiss. The use and utility of the European Commission's recent practice to use international arbitration in remedy-related arbitrations within the framework of Articles 81/82 of EC Treaty and EC merger control will receive particular attention.

Within this context, the role of the European Commission as amicus curiae in international arbitration proceedings and the resulting tension between private proceedings and the common role of the European Commission as the Community public prosecutor will be discussed in greater depth. With this in mind, the gradual transformation of international commercial arbitration and the emergence of the supranational arbitrator within the framework of Community-related arbitrations will be highlighted.

The purpose of the seminar is to gather academics and professionals with an international arbitration and/or competition law background (as well as corporate lawyers) at a venue which allows the discussion of the challenges of arbitrating competition and merger-control-related issues at the dawn of the 21st century. The key note speakers will set an informative framework of those challenges, which will be subjected to a panel of discussants, who will open the debate to the floor. The discussants are anticipated critically to reflect on the key note speeches by reporting on their own experience and the (likely) approach taken by the respective institution they represent.

Speakers
Gordon Blanke SJ Berwin LLP, London
Dr Marc Blessing Bär & Karrer, Zurich
Michael Bowsher Monckton Chambers, London
Professor Luca G Radicati di Brozolo Università di Milano; Bonelli Erede Pappalardo, Milan
The Rt Hon Sir David Edward KCMG former Judge of the European Court of Justice and the European Court of First Instance; Vice-President, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Peter E Greene Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, New York
Professor Hans van Houtte Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Stephen Kon SJ Berwin LLP, London
Dr Phillip Landolt Tavernier Tschanz, Geneva
Dr Christoph Liebscher Wolf Theiss, Vienna
Dr Johannes Lübking European Commission, Brussels
Dr Philip Marsden British Institute of International and Comparative Law, London 
Renato Nazzini Office of Fair Trading, London; Visiting Fellow, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Carl Nisser SJ Berwin LLP, London 
J William Rowley QC McMillan Binch Mendelsohn LLP, Toronto; 20 Essex Street, London 
Tim Taylor SJ Berwin LLP, London

The conference will be followed by an informal drinks reception.

For full details of the conference programme, including costs for attendance to this event, please click here.

RSVP

To register your interest in participation, please e-mail eventsregistration@biicl.org or telephone +44 (0)20 7862 5151.