General Course Information
1.1 Course details
| Course code: | LLAW6311 / JDOC6311 |
| Course name: | Sustainability and Competition Law |
| Programme offered under: | LLM Programme / JD Programme |
| Semester: | First |
| Prerequisites / Co-requisites: | No |
| Credit point value: | 9 credit / 6 credits |
1.2 Course description
This course examines the interaction between sustainability and competition between market actors and its regulation via competition law. The course is not tied to one specific jurisdiction, although it will often reference European competition law and related systems as the debate has matured in that part of the world.
Sustainability goes beyond environmental protection. It marries social development and economic development with environmental protection by ensuring that ‘development […] meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland Commission, 1987). The UN’s 2030 Agenda outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 associated targets, one of which encourages especially large and transnational companies to integrate sustainability into their operations.
Business action can impact sustainability and competition. However, the interaction between competition and sustainability raises a number of challenging questions, such as whether competition law should take sustainability into account when considering business activities and their effect on competition. Even where this question is answered in the affirmative, numerous more technical questions as to implementation remain.
To address these questions the course is divided into four parts. The first part provides a basic introduction into sustainability and the normative questions of whether competition should take account of sustainability concerns. The second part covers the economics of competition and sustainability. In this part, the course explores in particular how the protection of competition, consumer welfare, and sustainability overlap. In its third part, the course addresses substantive competition law questions with a focus on two sub-questions: How competition authorities can foster sustainability by targeted enforcement (such as against cartels that prevent consumers from buying sustainable products)? How to treat business action that contributes to a more sustainable world, how and under what conditions can competition law allow such activities? The final part of the course explores procedural tools that enforcers have at their disposal in the context of sustainability questions.
While the course will include some lectures, the main mode of instructions will be seminars. These seminars will also feature student presentations on specific cases or issues, as well as discussions to help students prepare their final research papers.
1.3 Course teachers
| Name | E-mail address | Office | Consultation | |
| Course convenor | Julian Nowag | jnowag@hku.hk | N/A | By email |
Learning Outcomes
2.1 Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) for this course
CLO 1 Have a thorough grasp of major concepts and debates about the interplay between sustainability, economics and competition law, with a particular focus on the different approaches in different jurisdictions;
CLO 2 Be able to think creatively about the normative challenges which arise from the interaction of competition and sustainability parameters in a market context to critically evaluate policy and policy design with a focus on providing original and creative insights;
CLO 3 Develop a critical and comparative appreciation of the ways in which different jurisdictions tackle different aspects of the competition law – sustainability debate with a view to provding creative insights into novel situations.
CLO 4 Be familiar with a number of substantive topics that will be relevant for further research in this field.
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 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Assessment(s)
3.1 Assessment Summary
| Assessment task | Due date | Weighting | Feedback method* | Course learning outcomes |
| Class participation | N/A | 20% | 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| An assigned case/paper presentation | TBC | 30% | 5, 3 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Research paper | TBC | 50% | 1 | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| *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 advised by course 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
To be advised by course convenor(s).
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/