General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6090 / JDOC6090 |
| Course name: | Economic Foundations of Competition Law |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | Second |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credits / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
Modern competition law is substantially an economic law; it governs economic behavior with a significant purpose of improving economic market outcomes. Economic thinking is a central part of the law: This module aims to provide the foundational knowledge that will help competition lawyers and other practitioners in their work and research.
The first four lectures will focus on the core microeconomic concepts used in modern competition economics. These lectures will cover: (1) the economics of markets, including supply and demand; (2) the theory of the firm, how firms make decisions; (3) market structures and market outcomes; and (4) game theory, strategic firm behaviour, and oligopoly. The next six lectures will cover the following topics in applied competition economics: (5) the economics of cartels, tacit coordination, and damages assessment; (6) market definition; (7) market power; (8) the economics of vertical restraints, including exclusive dealing and resale price maintenance; (9) the economics of price-based abuses of dominance; and (10) mergers analysis, including simple empirical measures. Each applied topic will present both theoretical concepts and applied case examples. The final lecture (11) will consist of discussion of a current topic in competition economics, and opportunity for final pre-examination review.
The module assumes no prior knowledge of economics. Some knowledge of simple algebra may assist but is not required. The module focuses on building economic intuition and application to assist competition lawyers in their legal work and research, rather than on technical economic skills.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Derek Ritzmann | ritzmann@hku.hk | TBC | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Describe and explain the foundational principles of the economics of consumers, firms, and markets.
CLO 2 Describe and explain the way economics shapes many of the substantive rules of modern competition law.
CLO 3 Apply economic principles in the context of legal reasoning to solve competition law cases, in particular effects-based competition law cases.
CLO 4 Demonstrate an awareness of the impact of competition law on the broader economic and social context.
CLO 5 Use relevant information about economic principles to critically examines the competition law cases.
2.2 LLM and JD Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Please refer to the following link:
LLM – https://course.law.hku.hk/llm-plo/
JD – https://course.law.hku.hk/jd-plo/
2.3 Programme Learning Outcomes to be achieved in this course
| PLO A | PLO B | PLO C | PLO D | PLO E | PLO F | |
| CLO 1 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 3 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 4 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CLO 5 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 20% | 1, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Short quizzes | TBC | 30% | 2, 3, 5 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Final exam | TBC | 50% | 1 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| *Feedback method (to be determined by course teacher) | |
| 1 | A general course report to be disseminated through Moodle |
| 2 | Individual feedback to be disseminated by email / through Moodle |
| 3 | Individual review meeting upon appointment |
| 4 | Group review meeting |
| 5 | In-class verbal feedback |
3.2 Assessment Detail
To be confirmed by the convenor(s).
3.3 Grading Criteria
Please refer to the following link: https://www.law.hku.hk/_files/law_programme_grade_descriptors.pdf
Learning Activities
4.1 Learning Activity Plan
| Seminar: | 3 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
| Private study time: | 9.5 hours / week for 12 teaching weeks |
Remarks: the normative student study load per credit unit is 25 5 hours (ie. 150 30 hours for a 6-credit course), which includes all learning activities and experiences within and outside of classroom, and any assessment task and examinations and associated preparations.
4.2 Details of Learning Activities
Details will be available on the course moodle page.
Learning Resources
5.1 Resources
| Reading materials: | Reading materials are posted on Moodle |
| Core reading list: | TBA |
| Recommended reading list: | TBA |
5.2 Links
Please refer to the following link: http://www.law.hku.hk/course/learning-resources/