Peter Whelan
I am a Professor of Law who specialises in both competition law and criminal law. I am the Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice. I hold both a Degree in Law and French and a Master of Laws from Trinity College Dublin. During my primary degree, I spent a university year studying French law at the Université de Poitiers, France. I came first overall in my class in my Senior Freshman year at Trinity. I also hold a PhD in Law from St John's College, University of Cambridge. I am a US Attorney-at-Law and a registered member of the New York State Bar. I have published widely in specialist competition law journals (in the US and in Europe) as well as in generalist law journals (including Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Cambridge Law Journal and Modern Law Review). To date my research has been cited in over 400 publications. For my work on antitrust criminalisation, I won the ‘Reddy Charlton McKnight Prize for Legal Scholarship', which was awarded by the Trinity College Law Review. I have been nominated three times for an ‘Antitrust Writing Award’ (in 2014, 2019 and 2021), awards which are co-organised annually by Concurrences Review and George Washington University Law School Competition Law Center. My research has been cited in European, African and South American judgments. My work on antitrust criminalisation was quoted with approval by Mr Justice McKechnie in the Central Criminal Court (High Court) in Dublin in the leading Irish criminal cartel case of DPP v. Duffy and Duffy Motors (Newbridge) Ltd [2009] IEHC 208. In December 2017, my book on cartel criminalisation was relied upon and cited in a judgment rendered by the Competition Tribunal of Chile: Judgment No. 160/2017. My work on hub-and-spoke cartels was quoted in a reply submitted to the Competition Tribunal of Chile by counsel for Walmart Chile in the case Requerimiento de la Fiscalía Nacional Económica en contra de Cencosud S.A. y otras, Rol C-304-2016. My work on selective distribution has also been cited in antitrust decisions of the Swiss Competition Commission (Online-Handels, 11 July 2011) and the Turkish Competition Authority (BSH Ev Aletleri Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., 16 December 2021). My research has also been referenced in soft law (official guidelines) in Africa: Discriminatory Conduct Guidelines, Competition Authority of Botswana, December 2014. In October 2018, my work on cartel criminalisation was quoted and expressly endorsed in the New Zealand Parliament during the Second Reading of their Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Bill. In 2020 my article on cartel activity and moral wrongfulness (which was published in Oxford Journal of Legal Studies) was cited in a judgment of the Kenyan Competition Tribunal (East African Tea Trade Association v Kenyan Competition Authority) and was employed to support the court’s holding. In November 2012, I presented oral evidence to the Commerce Committee of the New Zealand Parliament on Clause 18 of their Commerce (Cartels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. In the spring of 2013, I was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of International Trade and Law in Moscow, Russia. In 2013, I was appointed as an International Expert by the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) and in that position wrote a report advising the Finnish Ministry of Justice on the desirability of introducing criminal cartel sanctions in Finland. In Bucharest in 2014, I provided training in EU competition law to judges at various levels of the Romanian judiciary. I also acted an Advisory Services Expert for a World Bank project led by the Romanian Competition Council that focused on the Romanian competition regime. Since 2016 I have been a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network, which comprises over 130 of the world’s competition authorities. In 2018 at the Supreme Court of Latvia, I participated in a roundtable discussion with the Chief Justice of Latvia and a number of senior judges which focused on my research on cartel enforcement. In April 2018, in Santiago, I delivered lectures on my research at both the National Economic Prosecutor’s Office of Chile and the Competition Tribunal of Chile. In 2018 I gave oral evidence to the New Zealand Parliament for the second time, on that occasion to the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee concerning the Commerce (Criminalisation of Cartels) Amendment Bill. In Delhi in January 2019, I also gave oral evidence to the Competition Law Review Committee, which was set up by the Indian Government to review and propose amendments on its competition law regime. In October 2019 in Muscat, I provided training in competition law to the Board members of the Omani competition authority. In September 2020, I delivered a (virtual) cartel law training session at the Eswatini Competition Commission, involving various stakeholders and Board members. In February 2021, I was invited to become a member of the United Nations Working Group on Cross-Border Cartels, which is led by UNCTAD and comprises a small group of academic participants, as well as antitrust officials representing over 50 UN Member States. In February 2022, I was invited to become a member of the United Nations Working Group on Modalities of the Voluntary Peer Review Exercises, which is also led by UNCTAD. I am also the Focal Point for the CBLP on UNCTAD’s Research Partnership Platform on Competition and Consumer Protection. I am an Associate Member of the Centre for Competition Policy and am a Research Fellow at the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation. I am a peer-reviewer of grant applications under the Newton Fund of the British Council. I am a member of the peer-review colleges of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), the Irish Research Council, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Qatar National Research Fund, and the Australian Research Council. In 2018 I was appointed as a Member of the Outer International Assessment Board for the Government of Ireland's Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme. I have also acted as an external reviewer of grant applications for the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK Research and Innovation (Future Leaders Fellowship), the Economic and Social Research Council, and the National Science Centre (one of Poland’s main research councils). In Oslo in September 2018, I acted as a member of an international peer-review panel for the Research Council of Norway. In 2019 I acted as a member of a Peer Review Board for the World Economic Forum, focusing on competition law in the digital economy. In 2021, I became a Rating Reviewer for South Africa’s National Research Foundation. I am the Managing Editor of Oxford Competition Law, an innovative online national competition law case-reporting service operated by Oxford University Press. I also sit on the Editorial Boards of five journals: World Competition (Kluwer); Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (OUP); New Journal of European Criminal Law; Romanian Competition Journal; and Journal of Financial Crime. I have presented my research in over thirty countries across six continents. For example, I have delivered guest lectures at the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, University College London, Queen’s University Belfast, Strathclyde University, City University, Hong Kong University, the Institute of International Trade and Law (Russia), the University of Melbourne (Australia), Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey), the University of Bergen (Norway), Tel Aviv University (Israel), the University of Warsaw (Poland), Pázmány Péter Catholic University (Budapest, Hungary), Instituto de Derecho de la Competencia (virtually), the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs (virtually), the Latvian Law Institute (Riga, Latvia), NALSAR (Hyderabad, India), Christ University (Bangalore, India) and the National Law School of India University. I have also presented papers at a number of prestigious conferences, including in Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Norway, Oman, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, and at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London. I have participated at the by-invite only annual symposium on antitrust enforcement held in Washington DC, which is organised by the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. I have presented my research at both the Annual Conference and the Annual Cartel Workshop of the International Competition Network, as well as at an OECD Roundtable on Competition Policy. I have also delivered keynote addresses at competition law conferences in the Netherlands and Chile, at the Competition Authority of Kenya in Nairobi, and at the Peruvian competition authority in Lima. I was recently a co-investigator on the project ‘EU Social and Labour Rights under Internal Market Law’, which was funded by the European Parliament to the tune of €118,000 (Reference: IP/A/EMPL/ST/2014-02). I have also worked on competition law projects for DG Sanco (European Commission), Consumers International, British Telecom, the Competition Committee of the OECD, and the British Brands Group. To date, my research has been relied upon by the Australian Senate (in an official report), the Finnish Competition Authority, the International Competition Network, the (then) Chairman of the UK Competition Commission (in two policy speeches), the Chairman of the New Zealand Commerce Commission (in a report for the American Bar Association), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (in a submission to Parliament), the Consumers Council of Canada, the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (in a submission to the European Commission), the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (in a submission to the Global Forum on Competition), the Western Australian Independent Grocers Association (in a submission to Australia’s Competition Policy Review Panel), the Competition Authority of El Salvador (in a submission to the OECD), UNCTAD, legal counsel at the Competition Commission of South Africa, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in New Zealand, the Research Office of the Danish Ministry of Justice, the Competition Committee of the OECD, and researchers in the Competition Commission of India, the Turkish Competition Authority, the Norwegian Competition Authority, the Dutch Competition Authority and the Ministry of Economic Development in New Zealand. It has also been cited in commissioned reports for the UK Cabinet Office, the World Economic Forum, the European Parliament, the Korean Consumer Agency and the Swedish Competition Authority. I have been the subject of a feature in the 'Academic Life' section of Latvia's main legal periodical (Jurista Vards) and have been interviewed and cited by a number of international journalists (including for Russia Today TV; MLex Magazine; the Policy and Regulatory Report; the Verge; Politico; Revista Industria Legal (South America)). I am an elected member of the Council of the Society of Legal Scholars (‘SLS’). I also sit on the Research Grants Committee of the SLS. I am also a Member of the Academic Society for Competition Law. I am a member of the Peer Review College of the White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities, where from 2019-2022, I will act as a Member of its Thought Cluster Committee. Within the University of Leeds, I am a member of the following: The Court; The ESSL Faculty Forum; The Research Committee, School of Law; The REF Reading Group, School of Law; The Internationalisation Committee, School of Law; and The Research Degrees Management Committee, School of Law. In previous years I was a member of: the Senate (2017-2020); the Examinations Group of the University’s Graduate Board (2015-2017); the ESSL Faculty Board (2015-2018); the ESSL Graduate School Committee (2015-2017); the School Management Team, School of Law (2015-2017); and the Research Committee, School of Law (2014-2017). From 2013 until 2019, I acted as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, which is based in the School of Law. Prior to my coming to Leeds in 2013, I was a Senior Lecturer in Law at the UEA Law School, University of East Anglia and was a Faculty Member of the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy. Before moving to UEA, I was the Research Fellow in Competition Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) in London. In addition to conducting competition law research for BIICL, I also provided training in EU competition law to various consumer organisations across 14 EU Member States. I was also a Research Assistant (to Professor Sciarra) at the University of Cambridge and was the Managing Editor of the Cambridge Student Law Review. Before starting my academic career, I worked in New York City and in the People's Republic of China.