Guest Lecture — Dr Anselm Küsters (University of Stuttgart, Germany)

The Department of Public Economic Law and Environmental Protection has the honour to invite you to a guest lecture by Dr Anselm Küsters, entitled “Ordoliberalism, Neoliberalism, and Beyond: Toward a Human-Centred Digital Economy”.

Our guest offers a compelling intellectual journey through the evolution of European competition law—from its ordoliberal roots at the dawn of European Communities law, through neoliberal reinterpretations in the 2000s, to today’s tensions and ambiguities within one of the most dynamic fields of economic law. Drawing on original research employing Natural Language Processing, Dr Anselm Küsters demonstrates how ideas have shaped the language and practice of European Union competition policy, and how their influence has gradually evolved over time.

Building on this historical analysis, the lecture then turns to the future by presenting proposals for digital decentralisation, developed by our guest in his new book Small is Beautiful 2.0, in which he advances decentralisation as a promising framework for contemporary competition policy and digital regulation. By linking historical perspective with present-day competition policy, the lecture invites reflection on how platform economies and artificial intelligence may be regulated in ways that once again place human agency, justice, and democratic values at the centre of economic life.

20 February 2026 | 17:00 | Lecture Hall C