Anu Bradford – Keynote Speaker

Anu Bradford is a professor at Columbia Law School and a leading authority on the European Union, digital economy, and global economic regulation.

Bradford’s book “The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World,” was published in 2020 by Oxford University Press. It was named one of the best books of 2020 by Foreign Affairs, with Andrew Moravcsik of Princeton University writing that The Brussels Effect “may well be the single most important book on Europe’s global influence to appear in a decade.” The book has shaped public discourse on the EU’s role in the world and garnered extensive media attention, with the Financial Times reviewing the book, Wall Street Journal publishing an essay based on the book, and the Economist dedicating its Charlemagne column for the book.

In addition to her work on the European Union, Anu Bradford is an expert on trade, competition policy, digital economy, and transatlantic relations. Her next book “Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology” will be published in September 2023 by Oxford University Press. The book shows how the global battle among three dominant digital powers—the United States, China, and Europe—is intensifying as they are racing to regulate tech companies, each advancing a competing vision for the digital economy while expanding its sphere of influence in the digital world. In this provocative follow-up to The Brussels Effect, Bradford explores this rivalry among the modern digital empires that will shape the world in the decades to come.

Bradford’s research and public commentary has been featured in the top international news outlets, including BBC World, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, CNBC, CNN Business, El Pais, Foreign Affairs, Le Monde, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian, The New York Times, Politico, Reuters, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Anu Bradford holds the Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization chair at Columbia Law School. She is also a director for Columbia’s European Legal Studies Center and a Senior Scholar at Jerome A. Chazen Institute for Global Business at Columbia Business School. Before joining the Law School faculty in 2012, she was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

Bradford earned her doctorate degree in 2007 and LL.M. degree in 2002 from Harvard Law School, and also holds a law degree from the University of Helsinki. After completing her LL.M. studies as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School, Bradford practiced EU competition law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in Brussels for two years before returning to Harvard for her doctoral studies. She has also served as an adviser on economic policy in the Parliament of Finland, an expert assistant to a member of the European Parliament, and as a board member of the Finnish Innovation Fund, Sitra. In 2010, the World Economic Forum named her a Young Global Leader. In 2019, she was named “40 in their 40s”—Notable Women Competition Professionals in Americas.

Anu Bradford grew up in Finland, and lives today in New York City with her husband and three children.