Harmonization Of International Competition Laws Pros And Cons

Since the failure of the Havana Charter in 1947 till the success of the combined efforts of leading antitrust authorities against mighty Microsoft, the antitrust regime has witnessed several ups and downs. Auf jeden Fall the journey was not an easy one. Moreover now antitrust regime is standing at international crossroads and is wondering about its future direction. Today, at this crucial juncture the antitrust world is confronted with several dilemmas simultaneously. Choices are to be made between national welfare or global welfare, national autonomy or global regulations, the efficiency factor or the fairness view, national champions or global champions, collective efficiency or collective inefficiency, WTO or ICN, the US model or the EU model and so on. It is widely believed among experts that to overcome these dilemmas, the world needs some truly unified international antitrust framework, which would enable the international community to achieve optimal product mix incorporating the best from all options and through such optimal product mix the global community can enjoy to a large extent advantages that competition policy has to offer. In this direction I have examined the feasibility and viability of unifying international competition policy in this work. Additionally, as the title suggests I have listed out advantages and disadvantages of such moves. Efforts for harmonization of competition laws began as early as in 1948. Till date there are several binding and non-binding arrangements made in the direction of harmonization. The WTO and the EU for effective coordination in antitrust area have launched recently new initiatives. International Competition Network, a forum for active interaction among antitrust officials, even though non-binding in nature is doing considerably good work. I believe such confidence building initiatives among nations would help in arriving at some amicable solutions, agreeable to all nations. Chapter 8 focuses on various such initiatives taken in the direction of harmonization. In the concluding chapter, I elaborate further on need of having a unified antitrust regime under a contemporary scenario. Recommendations and views of experts are also presented. At the end I discuss my views about feasibility of having a truly unified antitrust regime in foreseeable future and other possible alternative measures that might help in achieving harmonization in future.

Current global developments in antitrust display two chief characteristics. On the one hand, national legislation in this area has proliferated all over the world since the breakdown of the major socialist systems. Today, competition statutes are to be found in more than 80 countries and more than half of them took effect during the past decade. On the other hand, the broad discussion on future harmonization of national antitrust laws as well as on the pros and cons of an international antitrust code or agency has stimulated international cooperation and convergence at various levels. Both strands require profound legal analysis in order to further a deeper understanding of the diverse national competition statutes as well as to pave the way towards global standards for the protection of competition against restrictions. Such standards are viewed as an adequate response to the challenges posed by the globalization of markets. The present comparative study was conceived for the XVIth International Congress of Comparative Law held at Brisbane in July 2002, and it encompasses fifteen national and regional reports from selected countries. Major jurisdictions such as the United States, Australia and Japan are treated alongside with 'newcomers' in antitrust such as Argentina and Poland. Two regional reports covering the European Community and the MERCOSUR complete the picture. Finally, a comparative General Report allows insights into the structural and institutional particularities of the jurisdictions considered and analyzes the harmonization potential in central areas of antitrust.

Master's Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 2.7, Ruhr-University of Bochum (European Competition Policy), course: MA (ECUE), language: English, abstract: Since the failure of the Havana Charter in 1947 till the success of the combined efforts of leading antitrust authorities against mighty Microsoft, the antitrust regime has witnessed several ups and downs. Auf jeden Fall the journey was not an easy one. Moreover now antitrust regime is standing at international crossroads and is wondering about its future direction. Today, at this crucial juncture the antitrust world is confronted with several dilemmas simultaneously. Choices are to be made between national welfare or global welfare, national autonomy or global regulations, the efficiency factor or the fairness view, national champions or global champions, collective efficiency or collective inefficiency, WTO or ICN, the US model or the EU model and so on. It is widely believed among experts that to overcome these dilemmas, the world needs some truly unified international antitrust framework, which would enable the international community to achieve optimal product mix incorporating the best from all options and through such optimal product mix the global community can enjoy to a large extent advantages that competition policy has to offer. In this direction I have examined the feasibility and viability of unifying international competition policy in this work. Additionally, as the title suggests I have listed out advantages and disadvantages of such moves. Efforts for harmonization of competition laws began as early as in 1948. Till date there are several binding and non-binding arrangements made in the direction of harmonization. The WTO and the EU for effective coordination in antitrust area have launched recently new initiatives. International Competition Network, a forum for active interaction among antitrust officials, even though non-binding in nature is doing considerably good work. I believe such confidence building initiatives among nations would help in arriving at some amicable solutions, agreeable to all nations. Chapter 8 focuses on various such initiatives taken in the direction of harmonization. In the concluding chapter, I elaborate further on need of having a unified antitrust regime under a contemporary scenario. Recommendations and views of experts are also presented. At the end I discuss my views about feasibility of having a truly unified antitrust regime in foreseeable future and other possible alternative measures that might help in achieving harmonization in future.

This volume provides the most comprehensive contemporary academic writing on Ukrainian competition and intellectual property law in English. Especially over the last few years, these areas have been in considerable flux, a main driver being the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement. The chapters cover a broad range of different topics and share a forward-looking perspective. They also outline the basic background that is necessary to understand the context of the issue discussed, especially with regards to the legal system of Ukraine. The publication is the result of a two-year project, and it is addressed to a wide range of international scholars, practitioners, and policy makers. It aims to make the state-of-the-art in Ukrainian legal scholarship visible and accessible to the international research community and to stimulate global debates in academia and politics. Therefore, it may be of interest and use to anyone who is interested in competition and intellectual property law, and/or in Ukraine.

The book covers contributions from 18 authors from different countries and analyses the recent case law of the ECJ on the external competences of the European Union. It deals with the impact of EU values on its relations with the Eastern neighbouring countries. The first part focuses on the evolution and current challenges of the external actions of the European Union, while the second part presents the EU cooperation with its Eastern neighbourhood and Eurasia. The book addresses the Association Agreements with the countries of the Eastern Partnership with its Eastern neighbourhood and Eurasia, the enhanced Partnership Agreements in the Eastern neighbourhood and post-Soviet area, and the current and future contractual relations with Eurasian Economic Union and its member states.

Michal Gal's thorough analysis shows the effects of market size on competition policy, ranging from rules of thumb to more general policy prescriptions, such as goals and remedial tools. Competition policy in small economies is becoming increasingly important, since the number of small jurisdictions adopting such policy is rapidly growing. Gal's focus extends beyond domestic competition policy to the evaluation of the current trend toward the worldwide harmonization of policies.

International agreements on competition law and policy are notoriously difficult to implement. This collection of essays examines the complexities involved when the issues of international co-ordination and harmonization of competition law and policy are considered.

The phenomenon of increased interconnectedness of the world's societies, generally referred to as `globalisation', is not only changing our everyday life, it also influences the legal framework we are living in. The challenges brought about by this process are especially great in fields of law which are by their very nature international such as Private International Law, the Law of Capital Markets, International Insolvency Law or the Law of the Internet. Can, for example, established conflict-of-law rules survive in a globalised world? What options exist for regulating capital markets in the era of globalisation? Are national laws on international insolvencies prepared for the increasing number of cross-border insolvency proceedings or does the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency show the way? How can national or international legislators react to the new forms of torts and copyright infringements via the World Wide Web? These are some of the questions which eminent scholars from Japan and Germany try to answer in this volume. All essays are based on contributions to a symposium which took place in Fukuoka, Japan, on 28-29 March, 1999.