Does the competitive process constitute an autonomous societal value, or is it a means for achieving more reliable and measurable goals such as welfare, growth, integration, and innovation? This insightful book addresses this question from philosophical, legal and economic perspectives and demonstrates exactly why the competitive process is a value independent from other legitimate antitrust goals. Oles Andriychuk consolidates the normative theories surrounding freedom, market and competition by assessing their effective use within the matrix of EU competition policy. He outlines the broader context of the phenomenon of competition such as its pivotal role in the electoral system and its implications for free speech, and then goes on to investigate its relationship with the proponents of various antitrust-related goals. Further to this, some relevant solutions to persistent regulatory problems of antitrust are discussed. Timely and thought provoking, this book will be of interest to both students and scholars of European competition law, as well as those who are curious about its philosophical foundations. Offering deep insights into the nature of the competitive process, it will also appeal to judges and politicians weighing up antitrust goals.

This collection of essays addresses the transformations ongoing in the field of competition law by analysing current developments through the prism of Giuliano Amato's Antitrust and the Bounds of Power - thereby building an intellectual bridge between past and present. Giuliano Amato's book, Antitrust and the Bounds of Power: The Dilemma of Liberal Democracy in the History of the Market was published by Hart in 1997. It has predicted, articulated, and explained many of the changes that have taken place in competition law in the last 25 years, and it is referred to by generations of competition lawyers as a key theoretical work. There are many mutually invigorating reasons and explanations for the paradigmatic transformations that have occurred in competition law, economics, and policy since the 1990s. Some are triggered by the internal evolution of competition law; others are determined by the broader societal context. In this book, leading competition law thinkers reflect on these metamorphoses; they explore the state of affairs in the field, connecting it with and advancing their analyses through the ideas developed by Giuliano Amato in his ground-breaking book. With an afterword by Giuliano Amato and a foreword by Frederic Jenny, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of competition law.