Market Integration The Eu Experience And Implications For Regulatory Reform In China

This book examines the relationship between regulation and market integration, with a special focus on China. It pursues a Law and Economics and Comparative Law approach (China and EU) to analyze the current obstacles to market integration and domestic economic growth in China. Topics covered at the national level include competition law, public procurement rules and financial regulation. At the regional and local level, this book addresses questions related to administrative monopolies, self-regulation, legal services markets, and environmental law.

With the Chinese government planning a comprehensive and detailed reform of regulatory law, the European experience is likely to contribute significantly. This timely book analyses comparative Chinese and EU regulatory reform from a Law and Economics perspective.

This volume contains papers presented at the 18th Annual EU Competition Law and Policy Workshop. The papers examine means of balancing effective (public) competition law enforcement and the requirements of legitimate and accountable exercise of public authority. The authors address the design and performance of various enforcement tools at European and national levels, including sanctions and remedies but also distinctive instruments under Regulation 1/2003 (eg commitment procedures) and under the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 106(3) when used as a basis for infringement procedures). From the perspective of legitimacy, reflections focus on the implications of fundamental rights standards and general principles of law for the EU's complex and quasi-federal enforcement architecture. Issues that may sometimes escape judicial scrutiny are also discussed, such as how agencies prioritise their activities, and how investigation responsibilities are distributed within the European Competition Network. Effectiveness and legitimacy are then considered in the context of public enforcement cooperation beyond the EU, where international organisations, regional cooperation and a range of formal and informal modes of governance prevail.

Vertical agreements represent a variety of supply and distribution contracts involving different market players, such as suppliers of diverse inputs, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. They gain particular significance in a global economy where technological advances are dynamic and are changing all the time. Such agreements are signed among businesspeople on a daily basis, and antitrust experts around the world are often asked to advise on whether they have any negative impact on competition or whether they infringe antitrust law. Taking into consideration the complex economic impacts of these vertical alliances, and the different market conditions that firms face in a wide variety of situations, the author proposes an in-depth examination of the following topics: resale price-fixing; geo-blocking clauses; exclusive and selective distribution systems; the concept of ‘economic efficiency’ in the context of vertical restraints; self-assessment of potential anticompetitive effects and antitrust risks; ex post control of vertical restraints; digital economies and its policy impact; alternative enforcement models under various institutional frameworks; the role and influence of political pressure groups. The book offers very constructive theoretical and political insights at the frontier between the disciplines of Economics and Law. By comparing two world’s leading antitrust jurisdictions, this book explores the lessons to be learned from the legal rules in the European Union and in Brazil, considering their promises and drawbacks, and formulates policy recommendations.

A detailed overview of the law-and-economics methodology developed and employed by environmental lawyers and policymakers.

This book analyses and critically evaluates the development of two key components of China’s economy: the network of productive enterprises, and the national innovation system, from the inception of market-oriented reforms to the present day. The approach is a partly novel one, albeit inspired to classical political economy, rooted in the structure and evolution of social relations of production and exchange and of the institutional setting in these two crucial domains. The main findings are twofold: First, the role of planning and public ownership, far from withering, has being upheld and qualitatively enhanced, especially throughout the most recent stages of industrial reforms. Second, enterprises are increasingly participating - along with universities and research centers - in a concerted and historically unparalleled effort to dramatically upgrade China’s capacity to engage in indigenous innovation. As a result, China’s National Innovation System has been growing and strengthening at a pace much faster than that of the national economy as a whole. The book also presents a speculative and provisional perspective on the validity, and meaning, of the claim that the country’s socioeconomic system is indeed a form of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It will be on interest to students and scholars researching China, politics, and development economics.

As China enters its proclaimed ‘New Era’ under President Xi Jinping, this book examines changes and continuity in social relations and political development, investigating new developments against the backdrop of continuations of long-term trends and previous policies. What has remained outside many scholarly discussions is a larger backdrop of continuity, into which the policies of Xi Jinping’s administration are inserted to further shape social, economic and political trajectories in contemporary China. Presented as a volume of methodologically diverse studies exploring some of the key aspects of social and political development in contemporary China, its authors examine the structural factors that continue to exert influence on China’s trajectory – in the ‘New Era’, as before – at the deeper and subtler levels. This is the first publication of its kind to focus on how continuity and change interplay under Xi; it enables readers to appreciate both genuine novelties and the enduring, long-term trends, as well as to estimate future trends in the proclaimed ‘New Era’ and beyond. Social Relations and Political Development in China will be of significant interest to students and scholars of Chinese studies, political science and sociology.

This comprehensive volume of the Elgar Encyclopedia of Environmental Law provides an overview of the major elements of energy law from a global perspective. Based on an in-depth analysis of the energy chain, it offers insight into the impacts of climate change and environmental issues on energy law and the energy sector. This timely reference work highlights the need for modern energy law to consider environmental impacts and promote the use of clean energy sources, whilst also safeguarding a reliable and affordable energy supply.