The School of Law’s Professor Peter Whelan continues important engagement with the United Nations
Professor Whelan attended and spoke at this year’s first meeting of the United Nations Research Partnership Platform on Competition and Consumer Protection.
Hosted by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Research Partnership Platform (RPP) provides a platform for researchers to undertake joint research and other activities with UNCTAD, thereby allowing researchers to input their expertise into policy-driven debates and to achieve real-world-impact. The Centre for Business Law and Practice (CBLP), which is based in the School of Law, is a formal member of the RPP.
During the first meeting this year of the Research Partnership Platform, which took place on 24 February, CBLP Director Professor Peter Whelan emphasised his Centre’s continuing commitment to the RPP and outlined specifically how relevant CBLP members will contribute in future to the Research Partnership Platform. Further meetings will be held with members of the RPP in the coming months in order to plan for their annual conference, which will be held at the United Nations in Geneva in July 2022.
According to Professor Whelan,
“The Research Partnership Platform is an excellent initiative and one to which the competition law experts in the CBLP are unequivocally dedicated. Over the coming years, we aim to contribute to the RPP in order to provide policy advice on the formulation and enforcement of competition laws and policies, support educational activities on competition, and contribute to training and capacity building in the developing world. We will of course input our own competition law research where relevant. It is a real privilege for us to be able to engage with the United Nations in this manner.”
In contributing to the RPP in his role as representative of the CBLP, Professor Whelan continues his high-level engagement with the United Nations.
In February 2021, Professor Whelan was formally invited to become a member of the United Nations Working Group on Cross-Border Cartels (which is also operated by the UNCTAD). Professor Whelan has spoken at various meetings of the Working Group and will attend a number of additional meetings this year. The Working Group comprises antitrust officials from over 50 UN Member States, as well as a select group of scholars, practitioners, and representatives from international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Professor Whelan is the only UK academic participant on the Working Group. The Working Group reports annually to the Intergovernmental Groups of Experts on Competition and Consumer Protection Laws and Policies.
In February 2022, Professor Whelan was invited to become a member of the United Nations Working Group on Modalities of Peer Review. He has already outlined to the Working Group his views on how the UN-level antitrust peer-review process can be improved. Throughout the coming months, Professor Whelan will attend more meetings of the Working Group in order to help UNCTAD refine its formal process of peer review of the competition law regimes of the Member States of UNCTAD.
