Subjects:

Competition Law

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Freedom, Law and Competition: The Nineteenth Century as Prelude

3. Fin-de-Siecle Austria: Conceiving Competition Law

4. Germany Before the First World War: Shaping the Discourse

5. The Interwar Period: Competition Law Takes Root

6. The Postwar Decades: Competition Law and Administrative Policy

7. Ordoliberalism: A New Intellectual Framework for Competition Law

8. Competition Law and Germany's Social Market Economy

9. Competition Law and European Integration: The Competition Law of the European Union

10. 1986 and After: Competition Law, the Member States and European Union

11. Law, Regulation and Competition: Europe and the Market

Bibliography

Index

Protecting economic competition has become a major objective of government in Western Europe, and competition law has become a central part of economic and legal experience. The competition law of the European Union has played a key role in the success of European integration during the last four decades, and it is likely to do so in the future.

In recent years, national competition laws have also become increasingly important, often creating tensions between national-level and European-level regulation. Yet, despite its importance, images of European experience with competition law often remain vague and are sometimes dangerously distorted. This book examines European experience in protecting competition, analysing its dynamics, revealing its importance and highlighting the political and economic issues it raises.