Dr Or Brook
- Position: Associate Professor of Competition Law and Policy
- Areas of expertise: Competition Law and Policy; Antitrust; Regulation; EU law; Empirical legal research
- Email: O.Brook@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 5240
- Location: 2.28 Liberty Building
- Website: Twitter | LinkedIn | Googlescholar | ORCID
Profile
I am an Associate Professor of Competition Law and Policy at the School of Law at the University of Leeds, and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Business Law and Practice. I specialise in international, EU, and comparative competition law.and policy, and empirical legal research (especially, systematic content analysis of legal text).
I have an interdisciplinary academic background – combining law and economics. I hold a PhD from the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance, in which I conducted a quantitative and qualitative empirical study, examining the role of public policy and non-competition interests in the multi-level governance enforcement system of EU competition law. I hold an LLB in economics and in law from the Hebrew University (distinction) and an LLM from the University of Amsterdam in European Competition Law and Regulation (distinction). Before re-joining academia, I worked as an associate attorney dealing with commercial litigation.
This interdisciplinary background has greatly informed my research interests and design. I am a passionate advocate of empirical legal research, which is still underdeveloped in Europe. In addition to research that makes use of such methods and the creation of large databases, I study empirical legal methodology and its political underpinning.
My monograph on the role of public policy considerations (non-competition interests) in the enforcement of Article 101 TFEU was published by Cambridge University Press (2022). Titled “Non-Competition Interests in EU Antitrust Law: An Empirical Study of Article 101 TFEU”, it is the first to present comprehensive empirical data on the consideration of public policy across the EU, evaluate their compatibility with the objectives of EU Competition Law, and offer concrete policy recommendations. In addition to the focus on the role of non-competition interests, it advances the very limited empirical study of EU law in general, and of EU competition law in particular. In fact, this is the first study to present a complete qualitative and quantitative analysis of the prohibition on anti-competitive practices, and the development of the enforcement practices throughout the years.
I'm also editing a Research Handbook on Abuse of Dominance (forthcoming with Edward Elgar, together with Prof Pinar Akman and Dr. Konstantinos Stylianou). This edited collection offers a comprehensive and functional guide for exploring the competition law prohibition of abuse of a dominant position and monopolization.
Currently, I am leading a number of large, long-term collaborative research projects:
In the Priority Setting Project (since 2019), we study the practices and theory behind setting the enforcement priorities by competition authorities. Together with Dr. Katalin Cseres from the Amsterdam Center for European Law and Governance, we work with policy makers, and international organisations to discuss and disseminate the findings of our novel empirical study, which systematically analyses those policies and practices. The project involves a wide array of impact activities – including training seminars, policy report, and academic publications to build an important network to rethink the enforcement priorities and influences reform. In 2019, the project received funding from the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Impact Acceleration Accounts, in support of knowledge exchange and engagement activities.
“Beyond ECN+ Directive – Empirical Study Mapping Judicial Review of National Competition Law Decisions”, is the first to comprehensive empirical study, mapping out all judicial review proceedings of EU and national competition law enforcement in the 27 Member States and the UK, and evaluating their effectiveness. Developed on the basis of a dedicated coding book to record quantitative and qualitative elements of each judgment - and applied with the assistance of 28 teams of national rapporteurs - the project creates an open-access debase and offers an evidence-based approach to assess the effectiveness and impact of national approaches to judicial review of (EU and UK) competition law. It offers a vital resource for academics and policymakers to reflect on the current practices and future reforms, and on decentralised judicial review of EU (competition) law. The project involves a large international team, including Professor Barry Rodger (Strathclyde University), Prof Francisco Marcos (IE Madrid), Dr Annalies Outhuijse (Stibbe, Amsterdam), Prof Miguel Sousa Ferro (Lisbon Law School), Prof Csongor Nagy (Szeged Law School), and Prof Maciej Bernatt (University of Warsaw., director of the Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies.
I act as the director of the UK’s branch of the International Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA UK). I am a fellow in the Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics (ACLE), as well as in Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance (ACELG). In addition, I was a visiting researcher at the Centre for Law, Economics and Society at University College London (UCL), the Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) at the University of East Anglia, and the Tilburg Law and Economics Centre (TILEC) at Tilburg University.
In the University of Leeds, I am an associated fellow in the Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, aiming to build the innovation culture and develop the next generation of academic entrepreneurs at the University of Leeds. As part of this programme, I received funding to develop my Priority Setting Project.
Responsibilities
- Centre for Business Law and Practice, Deputy Director
- Faculty of Social Sciences Research & Innovation Committee, member
- Research Degrees Management Committee, School of Law, member
Research interests
My research expertise includes EU, international, and comparative competition law. I am particularly interested in studying the boundaries of competition law and its interfaces with other forms of market regulation, and the manner in which procedural and institutional aspects of the enforcement inform the substantive scope of the law.
More generally, I am intent on exploring new areas and methods of quantitative and qualitative empirical legal research, especially the systematic content analysis of legal text.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Qualifications
- Bachelor of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Bachelor of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Masters in European Competition Law and Regulation, University of Amsterdam
- PhD in Law, University of Amsterdam
Professional memberships
- Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA)
- Israeli Bar Association
- Michael Beverley Innovation Fellowship, associated member
Student education
I teach European and international competition law, European Union law, the law and economics of business regulation, and quantitative research methods.
Research groups and institutes
- Centre for Business Law and Practice