Kyushu University [ＳｔｅｖｅｎＪｏｓＶａｎ　Ｕｙｔｓｅｌ (Professor) Faculty of Law, Department of International Legal Studies]

My research focuses on competition law and artificial intelligence. In the field of competition law, I mainly focus on competition laws in Asia, enforcement of competition law (leniency program, private enforcement), common shareholding and competition law, and digitalization and competition law. My research on artificial intelligence mainly relates to liability issues. Most recently, this study has focused on artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and liability. In the past, I also researched culture and the law.

As to education, I teach courses on legal research methodology and writing, legal research training, competition law, artificial intelligence and law. For the undergraduate students, I am responsible for an English language course.

Research

Research Interests

Competition and corporate law: interaction
keyword : compeition
2022.06～2022.06.
Common ownership, Competition Law and Startups
keyword : common ownership, horizontal shareholding, venture capital
2021.04～2024.03.
Horizontal Shareholding and Competition Law
keyword : horizontal shareholding, fintech, asia
2020.06～2020.06.
Algorithms and the Law
keyword : Algorithms
2018.01～2020.03.
The Japanese Leniency Program
keyword : competition law, leniency, empirical study
2011.04～2014.03.
Competition law and enforcement
keyword : Competition law, enforcement, leniency program
2015.04～2018.03.
Law and Culture (Trade and Culture, Safeguarding, Protecting)
keyword : Law and Culture
2008.04～2011.03.
Competition Law and Internationalization
keyword : competition law; internationalization
2008.04～2011.03.

Current and Past Project

This projects aims at mapping out the laws that regulate the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage or that affect the regulation of intangible cultural heritage in the Mekong area.

Academic Activities

Books

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Reports

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Papers

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1.	Stefan Wrbka, Steven Van Uytsel & Mathias Siems, Access to Justice and Collective Actions: Florence and Beyond, Collective Actions: Enhancing Access to Justice and Reconciling Multilayer Interests?, 1-19, 2012.04.
2.	Steven Van Uytsel, Collective Actions, Access to Justice and Multilayer Interests: Enhancement and Reconciliation in the Field of Competition Law?,, 57, 2012.04.
3.	Steven Van Uytsel, Beyond the European Community Treaty Provisions: A Need to Question the Cassis de Dijon Rule of Reason in Wouters?, Hosei Kenkyuu, 76, 1-2, F1-248, 2009.12, [URL].

Presentations

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ＳｔｅｖｅｎＪｏｓＶａｎ　Ｕｙｔｓｅｌ, Tackling Cartel Behavior in the Japanese Society: A Quest for a Different Approach, The Asian Law and Society, 2016.09, Deterrence has, for decades, been the mantra of competition law enforcement authorities in their fight against cartels. Fines and, if available, jail sentences reached record heights. Leniency policies were adopted to reach a higher probability of detection. The focus on high fines and increased probability of detection was inspired by assumption that firms are rational profit maximizers, weighing the costs and benefits of entering in a cartel, and that the height of fines and the probability of detection are determining factors for the cost of participating in a cartel.
Japan has for a long time not paid any attention to the deterrence mantra. To the contrary, the Japanese government undertook several initiatives to encourage cartel formation in the 1950s and 1960s. It could be stated that the favorable stance towards cartels finally faded away in the late 1990s, with an exception in the 1970s. In the 1970s, the Japanese legislator conceptualized a new sanction, the administrative surcharge. During the 1990s, the final pro-cartel legislations were abolished. At the same time, the legislator has taken steps to increase the level of fines and the Japan Fair Trade Commission has stepped up its enforcement initiatives.
The step towards a stricter application of the Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) continued since the turn to a new century. In 2005, Japan followed the steps of the United States and the European Union in implementing a leniency policy with the aim of increasing the probability of detection. In 2015, a long standing debate in academic writing was taken up in order to study whether it could be transformed into a policy goal. If implemented, this would mean that the JFTC would not be bound anymore by a legally determined percentage of the turnover when deciding on the surcharge.
Recent international scholarship is questioning whether the neoclassical economic paradigm of deterrence is effective. Maurice Stucke, for example, is pointing out, with four indicators, that cartel activity is persistent. A first indicator is the fact that penalties do not decrease. A second indicator is that the duration of cartels does not diminish. A third indicator is the continued workload of the enforcement authority in dealing with cartels. A fourth indicator is that firms persist in cartel formation even after publicizing record high fines.
Even though steps have been taken towards deterrence, Japan does still score badly on several of the indicators mentioned by Stucke. It may thus be questioned whether a continued emphasis on deterrence would deliver better results. This will be especially true if cartel formation is the result of a cost-benefit analysis, but of elements present in a certain society. That these societal elements are present in Japan will be the argument of this paper. Their presence will require a different approach, one that focuses on improving corporate culture, if one is serious of tackling cartel formation..

Membership in Academic Society

ASCOLA Asia
Asian Competition Forum
Academic Society for Competition Law
Academic Society for Competition Law

Educational

Educational Activities

Contemporary Issues in Competition Law; Legal Research Training; Research Methodology and Writing; Algorithms and the Law; Competition Laws in Asia; English Seminar; Comprehensive Research Seminar; Competition Law in Asia

Social

Professional and Outreach Activities

International Collaboration: Thai Office of the Judiciary (program coordinator of and lecturer in Diploma Course on Contemporary Issues in Law); research collaboration with scholars in Zhejiang University and Melbourne University; research network for publishing books on Asian competition law, involving scholars from Singapore, India, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan..

Unauthorized reprint of the contents of this database is prohibited.

https://kyushu-u.elsevierpure.com/en/persons/steven-van-uytsel Reseacher Profiling Tool Kyushu University Pure

https://www.ascola-asia.com/kyushu-univ-horizontal-shareholding

https://vanuytsel.wixsite.com/fintechinasiaRegulating FinTech in Asia: Global Contexts, Local Perspectives .

https://vanuytsel.wixsite.com/leniency-competitionLeniency Policy in Asian Competition Law Conference .

https://vanuytselsteven.wixsite.com/algorithmcollusion Conference: Collusion, Algorithms and Competition Law .

https://www.algorithms-competition-law.com/Conference Website .

https://www.kyushu-university-law.com/Conference Website .

https://kyushu-u.elsevierpure.com/en/persons/steven-van-uytsel
　Reseacher Profiling Tool　Kyushu University Pure

https://vanuytsel.wixsite.com/fintechinasia
Regulating FinTech in Asia: Global Contexts, Local Perspectives .

https://vanuytsel.wixsite.com/leniency-competition
Leniency Policy in Asian Competition Law Conference .

https://vanuytselsteven.wixsite.com/algorithmcollusion
Conference: Collusion, Algorithms and Competition Law .

https://www.algorithms-competition-law.com/
Conference Website .

https://www.kyushu-university-law.com/
Conference Website .