UNCTAD organised a first training workshop for judges at the Supreme Court of Costa Rica in San Jose on 11 November 2013.
The training workshop was held within the framework of the COMPAL Programme, and in close cooperation with the National Competition Authority of Costa Rica (COPROCOM).
The Course was designed to provide an overview of four main issues related to competition law enforcement, and the underlying procedural issues.
The first topic was an introduction to the legal and economic aspects of competition law enforcement, including how judges may apply this specialized discipline in such a way as to not lose sight of the economic aspects of competition cases in favour of procedural issues.
The second topic for discussion was the use of economic evidence in competition cases, which considered how courts approach the various issues of proof and how economic evidence is applied.
The third topic was sanctions and remedies, and the last topic was judicial review of competition cases.
The participants of this workshop were judges responsible for the review competition cases resolved by the Competition Commission of Costa Rica.
The workshop provided a unique opportunity to discuss with judges from the different high courts their challenges and interpretation of competition cases.
This was the first time UNCTAD has carried out this type of activities in Costa Rica and the participation of judges was outstanding. One striking feature of the attendance to the workshop was that the majority of the judges were female, which contrasts strongly with other UNCTAD workshops carried out in Central America.
It was proposed that for the next course, UNCTAD should address issues such as the treatment of indirect evidence in competition cases and how to present economic evidence in courts.
In addition, judges suggested the inclusion of consumer protection issues as they are also responsible for the review of cases from the National Consumer protection commission.
UNCTAD also had the opportunity to pay a courtesy visit on the President of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica, in order to share the experience of COMPAL work with judges and the need to sign a cooperation agreement so as to achieve sustainability of the activities in the long-run.
