These issues arise in discussions of comparative antitrust:
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How different countries balance different and sometimes conflicting economic goals when making and enforcing competition regulations – e.g., boosting the national and/or local economy, limiting the power of large firms, protecting consumers, and fostering local enterprise.
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How economic theory and evidence should be brought to bear on antitrust law and policy.
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How similar are the competition laws of Europe and the United States.
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What effect new antitrust laws passed in India, China, Brazil, and developing nations will have on trade partners.
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How much intellectual property protection should be given in competition disputes involving patents and copyrighted works, in cases where enforcing antitrust law creates tension with the exercise of intellectual property rights.
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Whether private firms, as opposed to the government, should be permitted to file antitrust lawsuits against rivals.
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How broadly jurisdictions should choose to apply formalistic per se tests to prohibit certain conduct, as opposed to a “rule of reason” analysis looking closely at evidence in each case to determine the competitive effects of the conduct.
TAP Academics researching comparative antitrust include:
Jay Pil Choi of Michigan State University has written several papers on international antitrust enforcement when multinational firms operate in several markets.
Andy Gavil of the Howard University School of Law is the author of a book on competition law, including comparisons of the law in the United States with laws abroad.
Richard Gilbert of UC Berkeley served for many years with the United States Department of Justice, and has written many works on antitrust and competition.
Keith Hylton of the Boston University School of Law has written on the differences between the United States and Europe in addressing competition issues with Microsoft.
Michael Whinston of Massachusetts Institute of Technology has written on many issues relating to competition law, including comparisons of merger law in the United States and Europe.
Guofu Tan of the University of Southern California is an expert on competition and the economy in China.
Nicholas Economides of the Stern School of Business of New York University (currently Visiting Professor at Stanford University) has compared competition cases in the United States and Europe.
Joshua Wright of the George Mason University School of Law studies an array of competition issues, recently focusing on problems of judicial error in the United States and abroad.
These sources are a good place to start in understanding comparative antitrust issues. Richard Gilbert compares competition rules in the United States and Europe relating to the production of technology in “Converging Doctrines? U.S. and EU Antitrust Policy for the Licensing of Intellectual Property.” Joshua Wright looks at competition issues with big retailers such as Walmart in “Sui Generis? An Antitrust Analysis of Buyer Power in the United States and European Union.” Keith Hylton looks at cases involving leading firms like Microsoft in the United States and Europe in “Section 2 and Article 82: A Comparison of American and European Approaches to Monopolization Law” – arguing that consumers are better off when courts give firms the benefit of the doubt. Nicholas Economides and coauthor Ioannis Lianos take another view in “The Elusive Antitrust Standard on Bundling in Europe and in the United States at the Aftermath of the Microsoft Cases.” Scholar Daniel A. Crane looks at competition policy enforcement problems in Latin America in “Private Enforcement against International Cartels in Latin America: A U.S. Perspective.” Jay Pil Choi and his coauthor Heiko Gerlach study international antitrust enforcement when multinational firms operate in several markets with antitrust authorities in each market, in their paper “International Antitrust Enforcement and Multi-Market Contact.”