Antitrust and the Bounds of Power

Since it first came into existence, antitrust law has become progressively more technical both in its form and in its manner of enforcement. In turn these characteristics have tended to encourage the belief that antitrust law is the exclusive preserve of lawyers, economists, and their respective sophisticated doctrines. Yet technicalities and doctrines give covert and not neutral solutions to a crucial dilemma which is of fundamental importance to us all, beneficiaries or victims of market economies: How much private power are we ready to tolerate to preserve economic freedom from the intrusion of public power? How much public power are we ready to accept to prevent private power becoming a threat to the freedom of others?

In this book, Giuliano Amato draws on his experiences as a lawyer, politician, and law professor to examine the character of this dilemma and the ways it has been addressed by legislatures and courts in the U.S. and Europe. His observations on the history and the doctrines of antitrust law and his conclusions as to how successfully the dilemma is being managed by the super economies of Europe and the U.S. will challenge conventional thinking and stimulate economists and lawyers as well as business and lay people to consider more closely the future of antitrust laws across the globe.