Speaker details

Biography

Judge Forrester has been an academic teacher, author and practitioner. He has lectured on EC legal and policy topics in many countries and published extensively on these themes, particularly competition, customs, dumping, pharmaceuticals, sport, the precautionary principle, and human rights. In April 2015 he was nominated to be a member of the General Court of the Court of Justice of the European Union and was sworn in on October 7th. He sits in the Third Chamber. His interests in competition include IP rights, dominance and due process. He argued, when a practitioner, a number of cases presenting the tension between IP rights and competition law. Honorary Professor and Honorary Doctor of Laws (2009) at Glasgow University, he has lectured at numerous universities. He was appointed Queen’s Counsel (1988), and Bencher, Middle Temple (2012). His EC/EU cases include Magill (compulsory licensing), Bosman (football transfers), Microsoft (compulsory licensing), IMS (compulsory licensing), Pfizer Animal Health (the precautionary principle), Government of Gibraltar v Council (status of Gibraltar Airport), Glaxo Spain and Syfait et al v GlaxoSmithKline (parallel trade in pharmaceuticals), Les Laboratoires Servier (settlement of patent disputes), Chalkor/Halcor (due process and judicial review), Canon (dumping), A and Others v National Blood Authority (whether a blood transfusion can be a ‘defective’ product), Bellona Foundation v EFTA (environmental protection). He was also involved in several European Court of Human Rights cases, including forcing a citizen to speak on pain of punishment even if the answer itself reveals punishable conduct (Al Fayed and Harrods: Fayed v The United Kingdom), press sources (Hans Martin Tillack: Tillack v Belgium), prisoner’s rights (Kalashnikov v Russia), fair trial and right to property (Karic and Djordjevic).