2013 UCAS International Seminar on Competition Law

  • Published: 2013-06-28
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The 2013 UCAS International Seminar on Competition Law, hosted by the Competition Law Research and Consultation Center (CLRC) of the UCAS, was held in Beijing on May 31 with the support of China Antimonopoly Forum. Professor Li Shunde, Dean of the Department of Law and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) at the UCAS’ College of Humanities and Social Sciences chaired the opening ceremony of the seminar, where Professor Ma Shizhuang, Vice President of the UCAS, and Allan Fels, co-dean of the CLRC and former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) delivered speeches.

The seminar was attended by more than 100 anti-monopoly law experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium and Italy. Officials from China’s government agencies, such as Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council of China, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce (MOC), were also present, in addition to scholars from China’s universities and institutes including the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), UCAS, and Shanghai Jiaotong University, etc. Experts from China’s leading law firms and companies, such as China Telecom and Alibaba, also participated in the event.

At the seminar, experts reviewed how China has enforced its “Anti-Monopoly Law” which has taken effect for five years and presented their vision for the law. In the first leg of the seminar which offered a general review, lectures were given by Professor Huang Yong from University of International Business and Economics, Professor William E. Kovacic of George Washington University and Mr. John Fingleton of the UK-based consultancy Fingleton.

Professor Shi Jianzhong of China University of Political Science and Law chaired the second leg of the seminar which was devoted to the “public implementation” of the anti-monopoly law. Officials from the NDRC, the MOC, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Professor Mel Marquis of the European University Institute, and Ning Xuanfeng, a partner of law firm King & Wood shared their insights on the issue.

The third leg of the seminar was focused on the “private implementation” of the anti-monopoly law which was chaired by Professor Wang Xianlin from Shanghai Jiaotong University. Zhu Li, a judge specialized in IPR from China’s Supreme Court, David Stallibrass, advisor to the RBB economic consultancy, Clara Ingen-Housz, a partner of Baker & McKenzie law firm, Adrian Emch, a partner of Hogan Lovells law firm and Professor Xu Guangyao from Nankai University gave lectures on this topic.

The fourth leg, “Development Trend and Challenges of Implementing Anti-Monopoly Law,” was hosted by Professor Fels, and the discussion was contributed by experts and professors from the UCAS, CASS, Renmin University of China, Hunan University, the Covington & Burling law firm, the economic consultancy Frontier, and Clifford Chance law firm. The experts delivered speeches on “IPR anti-monopoly”, “administrative anti-monopoly” and monopoly rules for state-owned enterprises.

Since five years ago when Anti-Monopoly Law went into force, China has become the third most important anti-monopoly jurisdiction only after the United States and Europe. Experts present at the seminar agreed that, as China is making remarkable progress in implementing the anti-monopoly law and accumulating experience in this aspect, anti-monopoly law would play a bigger role in the country.