Brief Bio

Walter Stoffel studied law at the University of Fribourg and Yale Law School. He wrote his dissertation on “Equal treatment Clauses of Foreigners and Nationals in Friendship Commerce and Navigation Treaties Concluded by Switzerland”. In 1981 he took his bar exam and joined the law firm of Henrici, Weber und Wicki in Zurich.

In 1986 he completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Fribourg and received a professorship in the law faculty. Walter Stoffel has also taught at various other universities including the Université de Paris II, McGill University in Montreal, Deakin University in Melbourne and the University of Turin. From 1981 to 1987 Walter Stoffel served as vice-director of the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne and from 1994 to 2000 he was scientific director of the International Association of Legal Science.

Walter Stoffel is a member of the Competition Commission in the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs and was president of the  Swiss Competition Commission (January 1st 2003 through June 30th 2010). He is also a member of the Swiss Society for International Law and works on the editorial board of the Swiss Business Law Bulletin. He is Chief representative of Switzerland at the Competition Committee of the OECD as well as in other international organizations and institutions in the field of competition  law. He also participated as a reporter or speaker in national and international legal conferences and symposiums in the fields of competition and company law, of international  commercial and procedural law as well as comparative law.

Walter Stoffel has been a member of the Swiss Science and Technology Council since 2003. He was born on 12 December 1949. He is married and the father of three children.

Representative Publications

  • The manuals and commentaries include a presentation of the Law of the Stock Company (Grundriss des Aktienrechts, 3 rd ed., Zurich 2011, co-authored with R. von Büren, University of Bern and R.  Weber, University of Zurich), Debt  Enforcement and Bankruptcy (Voies d’exécution, 2 nd ed., Berne 2010),  a treatise co-authored with I. Chabloz (in the second edition), a manual on the Law of Competition ( Kartellrecht [Weber, Stoffel, Zäch, Ducrey, Tercier, Richli, Zurkinden, Dähler],  Basel/Geneva/Munich 2000).
  • Most of the articles, written in French or in  German, or in English, deal with the Law of Corporations and the Law of  Competition as well as International Law, particularly International Law of  Contracts and Corporations.
  • The articles in English include Law, Control and Delegation (Mélanges  Marco Borghi, Bern 2011); Swiss Competition Law: Where from and where to? (Mélanges Pierre Tercier, Zurich 2008, pp. 677-690); Mergers in Small  Economies, (International Antitrust Law & Policy, Annual Proceedings of  the Fordham Competition Law Institute 2007, pp. 319-334); “Extra-Territoriality”  of Competition Law, (Liber Amicorum Luzius Wildhaber, Zurich 2007, pp.  1563-1577); Corporate Autonomy and Market Regulations (Essays in Honour of A.T. von Mehren, Ardsley, New York 2002, pp. 399); Enlightened Decision Making, 75 Tulane  L.R. 1195 [2001]

Courses taught at CTLS

  • Law Meets Film (Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021)
  • Competition Law (Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2011, Fall 2017)
  • European Competition Law (Spring 2013)
  • International Company Law (Spring 2011)