Dr Anna Tzanaki

Profile

As a Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds, I specialise in competition law and policy, corporate governance and finance, and law and economics, digital markets and new technologies, EU and comparative law. 

In addition to my role at the University of Leeds, I am an Affiliate Fellow of the Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Senior Research Fellow of the UCL Centre of Law, Economics & Society, and an Affiliated Scholar of the Dynamic Competition Initiative (Berkeley & EUI). I also serve as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics (Oxford) and Competition Policy International (Boston). Since 2021, I am an Associate Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

My academic journey includes a PhD from University College London (UCL) Faculty of Laws, an LLM from the University of Chicago Law School, an LLB from the University of Athens Law School and study abroad as an undergraduate Erasmus exchange student at Humboldt University Berlin. I was also a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School for a year and a half of my doctoral studies and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute undertaking postdoctoral research. In 2023, I was a Visiting Research Fellow of the Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin) at Goethe University Frankfurt.

Before joining Leeds, I was an Associate Professor (docent) at the Faculty of Law of Lund University (Sweden). Prior to that, I had been awarded a two-year postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for my project on the competition implications of cross- and common ownership of rival firms in Europe. More recently, I have received funding from the Swedish Competition Authority as principal investigator of a three-year comparative, interdisciplinary research project on the law and economics of competition compliance programmes.

My research has been featured in internationally leading academic journals (Antitrust Law Journal, Journal of Competition Law & Economics), scientific blogs (ProMarket of the Stigler Center at Chicago Booth Business School, Oxford Business Law Blog) and the popular press (Politico Europe). I have also contributed to prestigious, state-of-the-art academic volumes as a subject matter expert (Global Dictionary of Competition Law,  Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, EU Law Encyclopaedia). I am currently working on a forthcoming monograph “Partial Ownership of Competitors in Europe: Economics, Law and Policy” (Cambridge University Press) and have co-edited a “Research Handbook on Competition and Corporate Law” (Edward Elgar Publishing).

During my academic career, I have been engaged as an external academic expert by the European Commission (DG COMP) and the Hellenic Competition Commission on several occasions. In addition, I have been invited to peer review scientific proposals for external funding bodies such as the European Research Council (Remote Referee for the ERC Advanced Grant 2020 Call) as well as to provide training for national judges in EU Competition Law by the Academy of European Law (ERA). Based on my publications and research expertise, I have been invited to speak at an OECD Roundtable set to inform competition and merger policy during the annual Meeting of the OECD Competition Committee in Paris and to chair a session during the international Harvard-Oxford Conference on Common Ownership, Common Directors, Governance, and Competition at Harvard Law School.

Prior to academia, my professional experience includes working within the Competition/Antitrust Group of Linklaters LLP in London and at the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva. I have been admitted to practice law in New York (USA) and in Athens (Greece) (not practicing). I am fluent in English, German and Greek, I have a higher-level proficiency in French and Swedish and a basic grasp of Italian. Outside academia, I love dancing, poetry, films and travelling.

Research interests

My research interests primarily lie at the intersection of competition law, capital markets and corporate governance. I have a passion for law and economics research and a strong interest in exploring the interplay of competition law and new technologies (AI, fintech, digital platforms).

More generally, I am fascinated by the interaction between markets, institutions and politics and the way law may influence business and economic organisation. 

• Competition Compliance Programmes: A Comparative Law & Economics Analysis

Qualifications

• PhD (University College London)
• LLM (University of Chicago)
• LLB (University of Athens)

Professional memberships

• Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA)
• European Association of Law and Economics (EALE)
• UK Higher Education Academy
• New York State Bar

Student education

I bring to Leeds my international teaching experience and an interdisciplinary, research-based approach. I have taught a variety of courses and supervised numerous graduate students’ theses within the Master’s Programme in European Business Law at Lund University Faculty of Law. I have also served as a Teaching Fellow at the UCL Faculty of Laws and as a Visiting Lecturer at Stockholm University (LLM programme at the Faculty of Law), University of Piraeus (interdisciplinary Master Programme in Law & Economics) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (undergraduate International Business Economics Programme). I have taught on the subjects of EU Competition Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, EU State Aids, EU External Relations & International Trade, The Interaction Between European Labour Law and EU Competition Law, The Digital Economy: Economics, Antitrust & Regulation, Killer Acquisitions and Digital Mergers, and EU Law and Policy on AI, Big Data and Digitalization.

I have acted as an external examiner of PhD candidates at the Faculty of Law of Stockholm University in my areas of expertise. I have coached teams of law students from Lund during two European Law Moot Court competitions while I was the representative coach who led the first (female) winning team from Lund University during the final round before the Court of the Justice of the EU in Luxembourg in 2022. Following a three-year appointment, I also served from 2021 to 2023 as an elected member of the Educational Committee of the Law Faculty Board in Lund.

Research groups and institutes

• Centre for Business Law and Practice