America has entered its second century of antitrust law. The United States has come through the 1980s of laissez faire when antitrust had its lowest profile since the Hoover days, lawyers advised clients that anything goes, and theorists justified non-enforcement of the law by Chicago School economics--the claim that antitrust exists only to create efficiency and that business freedom creates efficiency. Meanwhile, the European Community has a developing body of antitrust law. It rejects the Chicago School as ignoring market realities, and it incorporates into its law values of opportunity, access, open markets and the right to be free from exploitation. The newly democratized European nations and Russia all have moved to market economies and adopted antitrust law in the image of the European Community, in spite of the carpet baggers trying to sell laissez faire. The Supreme Court of the United States has now reversed the swing of the U.S. antitrust pendulum, rejecting Chicago School theory in favor of market reality and accepting the fact that there is an antitrust right not to be coerced and abused by market power.

What is the intellectual foundation of this new antitrust--this law that respects efficiency, progressiveness, access, and freedom from abuse of power, and which reflects the need of business firms to be active and agile players in a global marketplace? That foundation is contained in Revitalizing Antitrust in its Second Century. This is the only book that provides the underpinnings for the new antitrust. It is the only book that helps the scholar/lawyer/business advisor/student understand the direction of antitrust and how to predict the course of the law. Four of the authors in the book were cited by the Supreme Court in its June opinion; one was cited eleven times. "Revitalizing Antitrust in its Second Century" is an indispensable volume for lawyers, economists, business advisors, sholars and students of law, economics, business and political economy.

This book focuses on market law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa, showing how markets can be harnessed by poorer and developing economies to help make the markets work for them: to help them integrate into the world economy and provide a better standard of living for their people while preserving their values of inclusive development. It explores uses of power both by dominant firms, often multinationals, and incumbent governments and cronies, to ring-fence their market positions and deprive rivals - often the indigenous people - from fair access to markets and highlights how competition authorities are pushing back and winning fair access, lowering prices of goods and services especially for the poorer population. The book also examines the next level up - regionalism - and provides the facts that show how regionalism has so far failed to meet its promise of freeing markets from cross-border restraints by large firms that operate across national borders. On the more technical side, the book takes a deep look at the competition policies of sets of nations in sub-Saharan Africa - West, South-eastern, and South. It examines the performance of the competition authorities of particular nations, including how they handle cartels, monopolies and mergers; their standards of illegality, and their methodologies for incorporating public interest values into their analyses. Observing the good works by a number of the national competition authorities, the book is optimistic about the role of the national competition authorities in protecting the people from abuses of economic power, and, perhaps in the future, the role of regional authorities and less formal networks in promoting an African voice in defence of competition.

Competition (or antitrust) law is national law. More than 120 jurisdictions have adopted their own competition law. Is there a need for convergence of the competition law systems of the world? Much effort has been devoted to nudging substantive law convergence in the absence of an international law of competition. But it is widely acknowledged that institutions play as great a role as substantive principles in the harmonious - or dissonant - application of the law. This book provides the first in depth study of the institutions of antitrust. It does so through a particular inquiry: Do the competition systems of the world embrace substantially the same process norms? Are global norms embedded in the institutional arrangements, however disparate? Delving deeply into their jurisdictions, the contributors illuminate the inner workings of the systems and expose the process norms embedded within. Case studies feature Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, South Africa, the USA, and the European Union, as well as the four leading international institutions involved in competition: the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the International Competition Network; and the introductory and synthesizing chapter by the directors of the project draws also from the new institutional arrangements of Brazil and India. The book reveals that there are indeed common process norms across the very different systems; thus, this study is a counterpart to studies on convergence of substantive rules. The synthesizing chapter observes an emerging 'sympathy of systems' in which global process norms, along with substantive norms, play a critical role. The book provides benchmarks for the field and suggests possibilities for future development when the norms are embraced in aspiration but not yet in practice. It offers insights for all interested in competition law and global governance.

This book focuses on market law and policy in sub-Saharan Africa, showing how markets can be harnessed by poorer and developing economies to help make the markets work for them: to help them integrate into the world economy and provide a better standard of living for their people while preserving their values of inclusive development. It explores uses of power both by dominant firms, often multinationals, and incumbent governments and cronies, to ring-fence their market positions and deprive rivals - often the indigenous people - from fair access to markets and highlights how competition authorities are pushing back and winning fair access, lowering prices of goods and services especially for the poorer population. The book also examines the next level up - regionalism - and provides the facts that show how regionalism has so far failed to meet its promise of freeing markets from cross-border restraints by large firms that operate across national borders. On the more technical side, the book takes a deep look at the competition policies of sets of nations in sub-Saharan Africa - West, South-eastern, and South. It examines the performance of the competition authorities of particular nations, including how they handle cartels, monopolies, and mergers; their standards of illegality, and their methodologies for incorporating public interest values into their analyses. Observing the good works by a number of the national competition authorities, the book is optimistic about the role of the national competition authorities in protecting the people from abuses of economic power, and, perhaps in the future, the role of regional authorities and less formal networks in promoting an African voice in defence of competition.