Upcoming and Recent

War and Insurance

This event is co-organized with the Centre for Private Law of The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law

War and Insurance

5 September 2025 (Friday), 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Academic Conference Room, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower
The University of Hong Kong

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War causes devastating effects not only to the parties directly involved but also to those seeking to remain neutral. One such consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the loss of leased aircraft that were not returned by Russian airlines. In Aercap Ireland Ltd v AIG Europe Ltd [2025] EWHC 1430 (Comm), Butcher J held that liability for these losses lay with the war risks insurers, not the all risks insurers. His detailed judgment addressed several key issues in aviation insurance, including the scope of contingent and possessed cover, the definition of loss, the relevance of the ‘grip of the peril’ doctrine, and whether deprivation of possession alone constitutes a loss. The judgment also examined the meaning of restraint and detention, the proximate cause of the loss—whether it was a commercial decision by the airlines or an act of the Russian government—and the impact of US and EU sanctions on the insurers’ liability. Professor Gurses will provide an overview of these critical issues in insurance and marine insurance law in light of this decision.

About the Speaker

Özlem Gürses is a professor of commercial law at King’s College London, with a particular focus on insurance and reinsurance law. She serves as Chair of both the British Insurance Law Association Committee and the Reinsurance Working Party of the International Insurance Law Association. Professor Gürses is the author of several works in the field, including the widely used student textbook Marine Insurance Law (3rd ed., 2023, Routledge) and Reinsuring Clauses (2nd ed., 2025, Informa). Her scholarship also includes numerous articles and edited volumes on insurance law.

Moderator: Michael Tsimplis, Professor, City University of Hong Kong School of Law

Professor Michael Tsimplis joined the School of Law (CityUHK) in 2018. Before he worked for the University of Southampton and the UK Natural Environment Research Council. Mikis’s research covers maritime, commercial and environmental law, oceanography and environmental science. He has taught in academic and professional courses around the world. His published research can be found at https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/persons/mtsimpli.

We are applying for a CPD point with the Law Society of Hong Kong.

For inquiries, please contact Ms. Grace Chan at privlaw@hku.hk / 3917 4727.

Dynamism and Politics in EU Merger Control

HKU Competition Law Lecture Series

Dynamism and Politics in EU Merger Control:
The Perils and Promise of a Killer Acquisitions
Solution Through a Law & Economics Lens

18 August 2025 (Monday), 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Room 901, 9/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU

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The digital era exposed a major jurisdictional gap in EU merger control: “killer acquisitions” of small innovative startups fall below the EU Merger Regulation’s turnover-based thresholds. The EUMR thresholds had two redeeming virtues, i.e. excluding jurisdictional competition between the Commission and Member States, with rare and narrow exceptions under a system of case referrals, and being relatively simple and predictable in their application. Eager for a quick and targeted fix, the Commission responded to the demand for more flexibility in EU merger control by unilaterally “repurposing” the Article 22 EUMR referral mechanism to catch potential killer mergers. Yet, the Commission’s creative solution to its jurisdictional deficit would not effectively address the “deterrence problem” and the “externality problem”, the main deficiencies of the EUMR thresholds, while it would de facto transform merger competence allocation between the EU and Member States into a “non-zero-sum” game, without amending the EUMR that would entail renegotiation of the original “zero-sum” bargain with Member States. Although the Commission’s attempt for unlimited jurisdictional expansion was struck down by the ECJ’s Illumina/Grail judgment, a narrower version of Article 22 EUMR based on national “call-in” powers still remains permissible. Our analysis shows that the repurposed Article 22 in its current form is neither an optimal nor sustainable solution and the search for further systemic reforms continues.

About the Speaker
Dr Anna Tzanaki is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds, she specialises in competition law and policy, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and finance, law and economics, digital markets and new technologies, EU and comparative law. She obtained her 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. She was a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School for a year and a half of her doctoral studies and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute undertaking postdoctoral research. Before joining Leeds, she was an Associate Professor (docent) at the Faculty of Law of Lund University (Sweden). Prior to that, she had been awarded a two-year postdoctoral Marie Curie Fellowship under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for the project on the competition implications of cross- and common ownership of rival firms in Europe. More recently, she has 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.

Chair: Professor Julian Nowag, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong

Registration is required for this in-person event. Please register ONLINE to reserve your place.
Enquiries: Flora Leung at aiiflhku@hku.hk