Editorial - Both Sides Now

Abstract

Competition law is fun. As a noted expert consultant told one of us: ‘Don’t tell my spouse, but I’d work on these cases for the sheer joy of it.’ The facts, the issues, the window into economies and legal systems -- it does not get much better than this. Not surprisingly, then, competition law academic seminars are also fun. At their best, they present opportunities for energized students to engage with scholars and wrestle with cutting edge issues in this particularly interesting field.

Each of the two authors of this Editorial recently had the opportunity to participate in such seminars on the less familiar side of the Atlantic.

The striking point, for both of us, is how different the experiences are. With all the talk about convergence of competition approaches, one might expect that the educational experiences would have harmonized. But they have not. This Editorial reflects on the differences we observed, implications from those differences for competition systems more generally, and the contributions of the four papers in this Special Issue.

Keywords: competition law, antitrust law, law and economics, comparative law

JEL Classification: L40, K21, K20