Talking 'Bout My Antitrust Generation

Abstract

The past generation of antitrust has witnessed much intellectual competition among economists and competition-minded jurists as to what that body of law is supposed to do. The current antitrust generation has seen a pronounced shift in favor of the economic view of antitrust's role, to the diminution of any political or social objectives once thought to be important antitrust goals. Nonetheless, three developments over the past generation deleteriously separate antitrust law from economics. Antitrust suits sometimes interfere with private attempts to manage the commons. States' insistence on being involved in antitrust enforcement frequently results in harmful suits that make no economic sense. So does European enforcement of its own antitrust rules. The desires of both foreign enforcers and state attorneys general to assume larger roles on the global antitrust stage are particularly worth watching. How those issues are resolved in the next antitrust generation will extremely important.

Keywords: Antitrust, antitrust laws, enforcement, international antitrust law, economics and law

JEL Classification: K21