The Law And Politics Of Global Competition

In its own words, the mission of the International Competition Network (the ICN) is to advocate the adoption of superior standards and procedures in competition policy around the world, formulate proposals for procedural and substantive convergence, and seek to facilitate effective international cooperation to the benefit of member agencies, consumers and economies worldwide. ICN members include nearly all competition authorities (NCAs) from around the world (over 100 of them). Since its inception, the ICN has also sought to enrich its discussions and outputs through the inclusion of non-governmental advisors (NGAs), principally large multi-nationals and the legal and economic professions. The ICN is a transnational network, set up by its members, largely without wider state input. This book hypothesises that the ICN's formally neutral structures provide powerful influence mechanisms for strong NCAs and NGAs, over the weak; and 'competition experts' over wider state interests, discussing the legitimacy of this from a political and legal theory perspective, analysing the ICN's effectiveness and efficiency, and suggesting ways that the ICN can improve all three. This study has important implications for the ICN itself, particularly as it launches its 'Third Decade Project', billed as a full self-evaluation. However, the story told here is also relevant to states and the wider regulatory community, due to the widespread use of transnational networks.

In its own words, the mission of the International Competition Network (the ICN) is to advocate the adoption of 'superior standards and procedures in competition policy around the world, formulate proposals for procedural and substantive convergence, and seek to facilitate effective international cooperation to the benefit of member agencies, consumers and economies worldwide.' ICN members include nearly all competition authorities (NCAs) from around the world (over 100 of them). This book hypothesises that the ICN's formally neutral structures provide powerful influence mechanisms for strong NCAs and NGAs, over the weak; and 'competition experts' over wider state interests, discussing the legitimacy of this from a political and legal theory perspective, analysing the ICN's effectiveness and efficiency, and suggesting ways that the ICN can improve all three.

Global competition now shapes economies and societies in ways unimaginable only a few years ago, and competition (or 'antitrust') law is a key component of the legal framework for global competition. These laws are intended to protect competition from distortion and restraint, and on the national level they reflect the relationships between markets, their participants, and those affected by them. The current legal framework for the global economy is provided, however, by national laws and institutions. This means that those few governments that have sufficient 'power' to apply their laws to conduct outside their own territory provide the norms of global competition. This has long meant that the US (and, more recently, the EU) structure global competition, but China and other countries are increasingly using their economic and political leverage to apply their own competition laws to global markets. The result is increasing uncertainty, costs, and conflicts that burden global economic development. This book examines competition law on the global level and reveals its often complex and little-understood dynamics. It focuses on the interactions between national and international legal regimes that are central to these dynamics and a key to understanding them. Part I examines the evolution of the current global system, the factors that have shaped it, how it operates today, and recent efforts to alter that system-e.g., by including competition law in the WTO. Part II focuses on national competition law systems, revealing how national laws and experiences shape global competition law dynamics and how global factors, in turn, shape national laws and experiences. It examines the central roles of US and European law and experience, and it also pays close attention to countries such as China that are playing increasingly important roles in the global competition law arena. Part III analyzes current strategies for improving the legal framework for global competition and identifies the factors that may contribute to a system that more effectively supports global economic and political development. This analysis also suggests a pathway for moving toward that goal.

The study of law and politics is one of the foundation stones of the discipline of political science, and it has been one of the most productive areas of cross-fertilization between the various subfields of political science and between political science and other cognate disciplines. This Handbook provides a comprehensive survey of the field of law and politics in all its diversity, ranging from such traditional subjects as theories of jurisprudence, constitutionalism, judicial politics and law-and-society to such re-emerging subjects as comparative judicial politics, international law, and democratization. The Oxford Handbook of Law and Politics gathers together leading scholars in the field to assess key literatures shaping the discipline today and to help set the direction of research in the decade ahead.

'This is a very timely book which provides an unprecedented analysis of the factors which have shaped the competition law systems of ten Asian countries and Australia. The comprehensive discussion from varying viewpoints against the backdrop of the significantly different environments within which the respective regimes have developed creates a framework for the comparative assessment of competition law systems elsewhere in the world.' Lutz-Christian Wolff, The Chinese University of Hong Kong 'New competition laws have been adopted throughout Asia in recent years, and some of the older laws have been significantly strengthened. This makes Asia a fascinating region in which to look at the political and economic circumstances of the countries in which such laws are to be found, and to consider the very different conditions that exist within them. This book will be an invaluable guide to anyone with an interest in the developing competition law regimes of this immensely important part of the world.' Richard Whish, King's College London, UK This detailed book describes and analyses the essential political economy features that provide the backdrop to the competition policies and competition law regimes of several of the most important Asian economies. The book also discusses the impact of these political economy influences in determining whether the adopted competition policy is effective. Each of the authors experts in their respective countries offer specific insights into the nature and structure of their competition regimes and discuss to what extent the varied political economy factors unique to that country help to determine whether and to what extent the established system promotes or hinders economic competition in that jurisdiction. Comprising wide coverage of Asian jurisdictions, including Australia, this book will strongly appeal to students and academics of law, politics, economics and economic development, policy makers in national governments, international agencies and competition authorities, as well as practicing competition lawyers and in-house counsel.

This edited volume identifies the various country specific factors that warrant changes in the design and implementation of competition laws. It uses case studies to trace the evolution of competition regimes in countries of varying degrees of economic development, and identifies the factors that influence the pace and effectiveness of competition reforms.

A key factor in the emerging relationship between law and economic globalization is how global competition now shapes economies and societies. Competition law is provided by those players that have sufficient 'power' to apply their laws transnationally. This text examines this controversial aspect of globalization.

This book documents the recent developments of what Marx called the 'general law of social production', and the leading roles of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the World Bank as advocates of a single global model of capitalist development. Marx's 'general law of social production', proposed in Capital (1867), suggests that as the capitalist system of production becomes global, and competition between capitalists becomes more intense, workers are compelled to be versatile (multi-skilled), flexible, and mobile in order to survive. This general law, resulting from scientific and technological innovation and continuous advances in the division of labour generated by competition between capitalists, has given rise to global production chains, 'zero hours' contracts, and the breaking down of production processes into smaller and smaller individual steps, increasingly supported by advanced machines and digital platforms. This book identifies the universal policy framework that promotes these developments as the politics of global competitiveness, and shows that the Washington-based World Bank and the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), working together, are its principal advocates. They do not narrowly promote the interests of the advanced capitalist economies, or the 'West' and its transnational corporations, but rather the unlimited development of the global capitalist system and the world market as a whole. When their policies are examined together and compared, they reveal a single, shared programme, focused not on the relationship between the developed and the developing world, but on the global relationship between capital and labour. Put at its simplest, their aim is to ensure that as many people as possible across the world have the potential to be productive workers, and to propose reforms to welfare or social protection that will oblige them to offer themselves to capitalists for work.