The authors argue that the rules and practices of corporate law mimic contractual provisions that parties involved in corporate enterprise would reach if they bargained about every contingency at zero cost and flawlessly enforced their agreements. But bargaining and enforcement are costly, and corporate law provides the rules and an enforcement mechanism that govern relations among those who commit their capital to such ventures. The authors work out the reasons for supposing that this is the exclusive function of corporate law and the implications of this perspective.

The authors have developed a natural order for students to understand the antitrust field based upon a division of the practices challenged into two groups. One group of competing firms eliminate competition purely among themselves. The second group of firms seek to exclude actual or potential competitors. In selecting and editing cases, the authors have preserved a sense of the historical development and jurisprudential character of antitrust law. In citing lower-court cases and secondary materials, the authors have selected only material that casts significant illumination on the subject.