Postdoctoral Position in Competition Law & Policy in the Digital and Ecological Transition Era

USP-CEU welcomes postdoctoral researchers with an excellent track record to apply to the European Commission Marie Sklodowska-Curie (MSCA) Postodoctoral Felloships or any other R2 reseach calls, such as: ERC Starting Grants, Juan de la Cierva or Ramón y Cajal (Spanish Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation) or Atracción Talento (Madrid Regional Goverment).

Selected candidates will be provided with special assistance for proposal writing and development. Our University has been beneficiary of 7 MSCA PF since 2017, including one MSCA-PF with an evaluation of 100/100 in 2021.

Research Institute:

The Centre for Competition Policy and Market Regulation (Royal Institute of European Studies, Universidad CEU San Pablo, Madrid) is specialized in the analysis of Competition Law & Policy. It has an interdisciplinary nature. The Centre is a forum for analysis and debate on the use of Competition Policy as a tool in our societies, Competition Law enforcement and the intersection between Competition and Regulation (e.g. with Single Market Rules, sectoral regulation, data protection, consumer protection, trade, etc). It has more than 20 years of experience and it has been awarded the following National and European actions and Research Projects:

• 2 triannual research projects of the Spanish National Research Plan, on New trends on Cartels;
• a Jean Monnet Chair on Single Market and Competition Policy in the Digital and Ecological Transition Era (ongoing till October 2023);
• a Jean Monnet Network, leading a consortium of partners such as UCLondon, UCLouvain, EUI Florence, CUHK, CASS (Beijing) and Fudan (Shangai).
• a 4-years' research project of the Spanish National Research Plan, on Judges and Competition Law.

The Centre has close links with the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), the EU Commission (DG COMP) as well as with law firms and economic consultancy firms working in the field.

The supervisor, Prof. Maillo (Jeronimo Maillo Gonzalez-Orus) is a member of the Board of the RADC (Spanish Academic Network for the Defense of Competition) and the AEDC (Spanish Professional Association for Compeittion Defence). He has also been appointed as an NGA in the Cartels and Mergers Working Groups of the International Competition Network (ICN) and in this role, he cooperates and assists the CNMC in some of its projects. The Centre has an agreement allowing some of its researchers to do an internship in the CNMC.

Some publications of the supervisor:

• MAÍLLO, J. (2022), Cooperación empresarial ‘verde’ bajo el artículo 101 TFUE: un análisis de opciones, en Robles, A. y Zurimendi, A. (dirs.), Estudios de la RADC 2022, Aranzadi Thomson Reuters, pp.337-360.
• MAÍLLO, J.(2022), Competition Law Sanctions in Spain, in Toth, T. (ed), The Cambridge Handbook of Competition Law Sanctions, Cambridge University Press, 2022).
• MAÍLLO, J. and VERDEGUER, M. (2022). The Competition Law Global Governance Dilemma and the EU-China Relationship. Revista General de Derecho Europeo 56/2022.
• MAÍLLO, J.(2021), The transposition of the ECN Directive in Spain, European Competition and Regulatory Review, CoRe 3/2021, Lexxion Publishers.
• MAÍLLO, J. y RINCÓN, A. (2021), Deporte y Derecho de la competencia. Comentario a la Sentencia del Tribunal General en el asunto ISU (T‑93/18), in “Derecho Deportivo 2021”, Tirant Lo Blanch, 2021.
• MAÍLLO, J. (2021) Legal Framework and Trends in Corporate Fines to Cartels, European Competition and Regulatory Review, CoRe 1/2021, Lexxion Publishers
• Maillo, J. (2020), New screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Europe: a first step towards a new paradigm?, Spanish Yearbook of International Law, 24 (2020) 180-209.
• Maillo, J. (2019) Tax incentives for green investments: limits to state cutbacks. A reflection on legitimate expectations and fair and equitable treatment of investors, in Marta Villar Ezcurra, Janet E. Milne, Hope Ashiabor and Mikael Skou Andersen (eds), “Environmental Fiscal Challenges for Cities and Transport. Critical Issues in Environmental Taxation”, Edward Elgar.
• Maillo, J. (2019) “EU Cartel Settlement procedure: an assessment of its results 10 years later”, in Beneyto, JM & Maillo, J. (dir), “Novedades y retos en la lucha contra los cárteles económicos en España”, Aranzadi Thomson Reuters.
• Maillo, J. (2018), “Antitrust Damages Claims in Spain: Before and After the Damages Directive”, in In PARCU PL, MONTI G., BOTTA M., Private Enforcement of EU Competition Law: the Impact of the Damages Directive. Edward Elgar, 2018
• Maillo, J. (2017), “Balancing Environmental Protection, Competitiveness And Competition: A Critical Assessment Of The GBER And The EEAG”, European State Aid Law Quaterly, 1/2017.
• Beneyto, JM & Maillo, J. (dir) (2017), Tratado de Derecho de la Competencia. Unión Europea y España (Treatise on Competition Law), 2nd edition, Bosch-Wolters Kluwer, 2017.
• Maillo, J. (2016), “Rewards and Whistleblower’s Protection in Europe: A Comparison with Third Countries, in Beneyto, JM. & Maillo, J. (dir) The Fight against Hard Core Cartels in Europe. Trends, Challenges and Best International Practices, Bruylant, Brussels, 2016.
• Bellis, J-F, Beneyto, JM, Maillo, J. (eds), (2012) Reviewing vertical restraints in Europe, Bruylant-Concurrences, Brussels, 2012.

Granted research projects and actions:

• “Judges and Competition Law”, National Research Plan, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and National Competition Commission. 2021-2025.
• Jean Monnet Chair on Single Market and Competition Policy in the Digital and Ecological Transition Era
• Jean Monnet Network EU-China: Comparative experiences and contributions to global governance in the fields of climate change, trade and competition
• “New challenges in the fight against hard cartels.” National Research Plan, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and National Competition Commission (2017-2019)
• “Horizontal agreements: the fight against hard cartels in Spain. Prevention, detection, evidence and sanction”. National Research Plan, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and National Competition Commission. 2012-2014.

Research Proposal:

The Project to be developed by the Postdoctoral Fellow should fit into one of these three lines of research:

• Competition Law and Digital Markets
• Competition Law and sustainibility.
• Intersection between Competition and Regulation

Within the first two lines, the candidate can work on the impact on cartels and other cooperation agreements, abuses of dominant positions, merger control or public restraints (mainly State aids).

The postdoc fellow may also work on the intersection between competition and regulation, particularly in fields related to the abovementioned first 2 lines of research: developments such as the Digital Market Act or the intersection between competition and data protection are very welcome. Indeed, our Law School holds a Google Chair (by Prof. José Luis Piñar Mañas, former president of the Spanish Data Protection Agency) and the Fellow may therefore benefit of the interaction between the Jean Monnet and the Google Chair, with their correspondent research teams. The impact of Artificial Intelligence and Big data in Competition Law cases is also a very interesting area of research. The CNMC has just created a new very innovative unit in this area and is devoting increasing resources to this topic.

As the Centre is a section of the Royal Institute for European Studies, a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, another area of interesting developments maybe the intersection between trade and competition (for instance the follow up of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation or the European Framework to control FDI), and the international dimension of competition policy and its global governance. The Institute has several ongoing research projects on the evolution of EU trade policy and the relations with other big global actors such as the US and China. We have good links with prestigious Chinese and US Institutions (Harvard, Fudan, CASS, CUHK) and other European partners which are working in this field (UCL, Louvain, EUI Florence).

Two other aspects that may interest the candidates are:

• the possibility of internships in the CNMC or other institutions during the fellowship.
• the possibility of lecturing in both English and Spanish at graduate and postgraduate level in these research fields.

Keywords:

Antitrust, Competition, Digital, Ecological Transition, Market Regulation, Trade

Application profiles:

We are looking for highly qualified candidates who shall:

• Have a legal and/or economic specialisation in competition policy or the above-mentioned related aspects.
• Want to choose CEU San Pablo University (and the Centre for Competition Policy and Market Regulation) as host institution and therefore being based in Madrid
• Hold an excellent level of English. A good level of Spanish is a plus, but not indispensable.

An expression of interest shall be sent to Prof. Maillo (maigon@ceu.es). Your file should contain the following elements:

• A short CV (Max. 2 pages)
• A one-page research proposal
• A short statement explaining why CEU would be the best host institution for your research
• Two letters of reference

For MSCA-PF 23 call, at the deadline for the submission of proposals (13/09/2023) candidates shall have a maximum of 8 years of postdoctoral research experience and must not have resided or carried out their main activities in Spain or more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the abovementioned deadline.

Those files received before 21st of July will be considered for MSCA-PF 2023 call. Applications received after this date, will be considered for other postdoctoral calls or future applications after discussion with the candidate.