On May 16 the Interdisciplinary Centre for Competition Law and Policy (ICC) held its annual conference in Brussels, in partnership with Crowell & Moring LLP. Attendees included judges, officials, academics and in-house counsel as well as 10 students studying Competition Law at Queen Mary University of London. The conference provided a unique forum for exchanging ideas and discussing recent developments in Competition Law, and the inclusion of Crowell & Moring LLP allowed the policy-driven perspective of the ICC to be complimented by a practising law firm's legal outlook.
One of the 10 students selected to attend was Madeleine Maire, who gave us her account of the conference:
"This year the ICC held its annual conference in Brussels, Belgium, and selected 10 students studying Competition Law at Queen Mary, including myself, to attend free of charge. This provided us with an invaluable learning experience and allowed us to network with high ranking professionals.
The event was chaired by Professor Maher Dabbah, Director and Founder of the ICC, as well as Werner Berg on behalf of Crowell & Moring LLP. Topics covered in the conference included international cartel enforcement, international merger control, essential patents and abuse of dominance. The varied discussion gave us a rare insight in to the latest issues in the field of Competition Law and a reception was held following the event where students were able to meet the speakers and legal professionals in an informal setting.
Overall it was an extremely rewarding experience. This was not only because we were able to meet practitioners who are respected in their fields, but also as the event helped us all a lot with our dissertations as many relevant Competition Law regulations were discussed."