Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Corporate & Securities Law Blogs -> Antitrust Review

Corporate & Securities Law

: Antitrust Review

International Antitrust at U.C. Berkeley

By Hanno Kaiser

I am very much looking forward to teaching International Antitrust Law at U.C. Berkeley in Spring 2009. Here is the course announcement.

Modern antitrust law is global antitrust law. Driven by economic globalization and trade liberalization, antitrust laws have proliferated around the globe. At the same time, antitrust as a discipline has imported neoclassical price theory as its core analytical framework. The result is a vibrant, multi-faceted discipline, organized around a common core of analytical principles, yet reflective of the different cultural, political, and legal contexts in which government enforcement and litigation ultimately take place. In this course, we will focus on the common economic grammar of virtually all modern antitrust regimes as well as on their distinctive differences. Having a firm grasp of both is critical for building a modern, global antitrust case. Specifically, we will focus on:

• Cross-border mergers and joint ventures
• Monopolization and abuse of dominance
• Global cartels

Using recent cases as a basis for discussion, we will cover topics such as extraterritoriality (e.g., Empagran), institutional design (why does the U.S. have two agencies that enforce the antitrust laws, not to mention the States?), and the economics of mergers, exclusion, and innovation. We will focus specifically on the U.S., the European Union, and China. Many of our cases will involve high-technology firms that deal in tangible and intangible goods and services (e.g., Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Apple, etc.). Along the way, we will discuss legal and cultural aspects of globalization and various flavors of capitalism, and analyze the different functions that antitrust laws play in large (e.g., the U.S.) and small (e.g., Israel), rich and poor economies. The textbook for the course is: E. Elhauge & D. Geradin, Global Antitrust Law and Economics, Foundation Press (2007).

To streamline the preparation and dissemination of materials, I am planning on using Google Docs. I am also toying with the idea of making updates to Wikipedia part of my course assignments.

Full post as published by Antitrust Review on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).