Rethinking US Antitrust Policy and Administration: Joining the Rest of the World in the 21st Century

Today, more than 100 countries have functioning competition laws and associated enforcement machinery. Virtually all of these countries have created or substantially amended their competition law statutes, regulations and/or enforcement systems since the onset of the 21st-century. Such countries include Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Mexico, Korea, South Africa, Pakistan, Taiwan, and all 27 E.U. Member States (ranging from Malta and Estonia to Germany and the U.K.). Competition policy, and its general importance to the well-being of a national economy, has been more and more recognized by executive and legislative branches of governments around the world. Most governments have responded by giving attention to the content and form of their competition laws and coming up with administrative or other procedures for managing this element of national policy. In virtually every case, this has been done with attention to the international nature of much of antitrust.