{"id":316,"date":"2006-11-21T13:18:10","date_gmt":"2006-11-21T17:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/11\/21\/understanding-antitrust-law\/"},"modified":"2007-02-26T12:30:06","modified_gmt":"2007-02-26T16:30:06","slug":"understanding-antitrust-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/11\/21\/understanding-antitrust-law\/","title":{"rendered":"understanding antitrust law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This information may be too late for <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Daniel_Wallace_(plaintiff)\">Daniel Wallace<\/a> (see our <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/2006\/11\/18\/pro-se-antitrust-plaintiff-loses-gnu-glp-case\/\">prior post<\/a>).\u00a0 But, <em>shlep<\/em> wants to help the nonlawyer understand antitrust law, so that\u00a0decisions about suing (or seeking legal assistance) will be better-informed and, more generally, so that members of the public can better evaluate the action (or inaction) of prosecutors and private litigants.\u00a0\u00a0 Last week&#8217;s news that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has opened an investigation into\u00a0&#8220;whether the Infectious Diseases Society of America has violated antitrust laws in setting new guidelines for diagnosing and treating Lyme disease&#8221; (<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.courant.com\/news\/local\/hc-ctlyme1117.artnov17,0,1670696.story?coll=hc-headlines-local\">Hartford Courant<\/a><\/em>, Nov. 17, 2006; via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustreview.com\/archives\/755\"><em>Antitrust Review<\/em><\/a>), suggests both that antitrust will\u00a0often be clumsily used\u00a0as a political panacea\u00a0and that even prosectors should be brushing up on antitrust basics. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"31\" alt=\"aaiLogo\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/11\/aaiLogo.gif\" width=\"50\" \/>\u00a0 Our task is made much easier by a project that I put together for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/\">American Antitrust Institute<\/a> [AAI] a few years ago.\u00a0 It is a <em>Guide to <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\"><strong><em>Antitrust Resources<\/em><\/strong><\/a><em> on the Web<\/em>, that\u00a0has annotated links to hundreds of online materials,\u00a0searchable and presented in numerous categories, including:\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>antitrust <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/primers.cfm\"><strong>Primers and Overviews<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from a variety of sources and points of view<\/li>\n<li>federal (U.S.A.) antitrust <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/codes.cfm\">statutes and regulations<\/a>\u00a0&#8212; Sherman, Clayton, Robinson-Patman, and more<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/agencies.cfm\">U.S. enforcement<\/a> agencies and guidelines<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/state.cfm\">state<\/a> antitrust resources<\/li>\n<li>antitrust <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/exempt.cfm\">exemptions<\/a>: Parker\/State-Action, Noerr-Pennington (seeking government aciton), Baseball, Business of Insurance, and more<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/international.cfm\">International Competition Resources<\/a>, including: a) <a href=\"http:\/\/r0.unctad.org\/en\/subsites\/cpolicy\/english\/nat-compaut.htm\">Competition Links Worldwide<\/a>: links to National Competition Authorities, compiled by UNCTAD; <a href=\"http:\/\/r0.unctad.org\/en\/subsites\/cpolicy\/english\/comp_leg_list.htm\">National Competition Legislation<\/a>: Compiled by UNCTAD, this is a <em>growing<\/em> list of links to English versions of laws for the protection of competition in various nations, including Bulgaria, Chile, Indonesia, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Lithuania, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Zambia, Zimbabwe; and c) materials on\u00a0specific <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/international.cfm#regions\">Regions<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/international.cfm#countries\">Countries<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To keep up on antitrust issues in the news, we suggest: a) The daily posting on antitrust news, scholarship and opinion by Crane, Fischer, Kaiser &amp; Gabriel at the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustreview.com\/\">Antitrust Review Weblog<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0and by Prof. Ghosh at his\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/antitrustprof_blog\/\">AntitrustProf Blog<\/a>\u00a0(update: Prof. Ghosh has been joined by Prof. D. Daniel Sokol and renamed the site\u00a0<em>Antitrust &amp; Competition Policy<\/em> <em>Blog<\/em>).\u00a0\u00a0 b) Quarterly expert analysis on current issues from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abanet.org\/antitrust\/at-source\/at-source.html\"><em>The Antitrust Source<\/em><\/a>, an online publication\u00a0from the American Bar Association&#8217;s Section on Antitrust.\u00a0\u00a0 c) Sheppard Mullin&#8217;s monthly newsletter editions at its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustlawblog.com\/\"><em>Antitrust Law Blog<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 And, d) the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/\">AAI homepage<\/a>, where you can keep abreast of its many advocacy initiatives and educational projects and publications.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"80\" alt=\"TrustBusterTeddyN\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2006\/11\/TrustBusterTeddyN.jpg\" width=\"53\" \/>\u00a0 For intellectual and historical background, you might want to read about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/links\/misc.cfm#factions\">The Factions of Antitrust<\/a>.\u00a0 There are four major schools of thought in the United States concerning the relationship between government and economic markets, resulting in four corresponding approaches to the role of antitrust and competition policy. From political &#8220;right&#8221; to &#8220;left&#8221;, they are: Libertarian, Neoclassical (&#8220;Chicago&#8221;), Post-Chicago, and Populist.\u00a0 As is suggested in recent postings at the <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustreview.com\/archives\/752\">Antitrust Review<\/a><\/em> weblog and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.truthonthemarket.com\/2006\/11\/13\/crane-and-lambert-on-hovenkamp-the-closet-chicagoan\/\"><em>Truth on the Market<\/em><\/a>, the &#8220;Chicago School&#8221; has won most of the important debates in antitrust law &#8212; in academia and the courts &#8212;\u00a0over the past couple of decades.<\/p>\n<p><em>update<\/em> (Nov. 25, 2006): A listing at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.consumerworld.org\/pages\/legal.htm\">ConsumerWorld&#8217;s Legal Resources<\/a> page reminded us that Prof. Anthony D. Becker\u00a0of St. Olaf College has put together\u00a0the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stolaf.edu\/people\/becker\/antitrust\/\"><em><strong>The Antitrust Case Browser<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, which has links to case summaries for all U.S. Supreme Court antitrust cases, arranged alphabetically, chronologically and by subject and industry.\u00a0 It also has links to statutes and other antitrust resources.<\/p>\n<p><em>update<\/em> (Feb. 14, 2007): Prof. D. Daniel Sokol at the <em>Antitrust &amp; Competition Policy<\/em> weblog has posted today on <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/antitrustprof_blog\/2007\/02\/what_are_the_be.html\">What are the Best Souces for Antitrust\/Competition Policy News?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"52\" alt=\"TrustBusterTeddyS\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/shlep\/files\/2007\/02\/TrustBusterTeddyS.jpg\" width=\"35\" \/>\u00a0 <strong>One that Oscar Forgot <\/strong>(<em>update,<\/em> Feb. 26, 2007): Last night&#8217;s Academy Awards ceremony apparently overlooked a real contender in the Short-form documentary category.\u00a0 Russel Mokhibor wrote a glowing review of <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairfightfilm.org\/index.html\">Fair Fight in the Marketplace<\/a><\/em> in the Feb. 21, 2007 edition of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.corporatecrimereporter.com\/fairfight022107.htm\"><em>Corporate Crime Reporter<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em>\u00a0 Mokhibor is impressed (and surprised) that a 30-minute primer on antitrust could be so interesting and informative. The review notes that &#8220;The movie, narrated by National Public Radio\u2019s Mara Liasson, traces the history of the antitrust laws \u2013 and keeps it interesting for young people with cartoon depictions of price fixing and television clips of kids competing.&#8221;\u00a0 The English-language film will have Spanish and Mandarin subtitles (the review has an interesting explanation for the Mandarin). There&#8217;s even a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairfightfilm.org\/viewplus.html\">special edition<\/a> with commentary for high schoolers. The reviewer also gushes that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[T]he film actually becomes gripping educational television \u2013 am I losing my bearings here? \u2013 when it profiles the <em>Mylan Labs<\/em>, <em>ADM<\/em> and <em>Microsoft<\/em> cases.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Perhaps the film, which is the brainchild of Bert Foer, president of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/\">American Antitrust Institute<\/a>, will be eligible for an Oscar next year, as it will have its broadcast premiere on PBS in April.\u00a0\u00a0 You can see it online at any time <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fairfightfilm.org\/index.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This information may be too late for Daniel Wallace (see our prior post).\u00a0 But, shlep wants to help the nonlawyer understand antitrust law, so that\u00a0decisions about suing (or seeking legal assistance) will be better-informed and, more generally, so that members of the public can better evaluate the action (or inaction) of prosecutors and private litigants.\u00a0\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[991,896],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-items","category-resources-consumer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/shlep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}