Review of Books on Competition Law and Policy

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0386.00070
• Published date: 01 June 1999
• Date: 01 June 1999
• Author: Jo Shaw

Review of Books on Competition

Law and Policy

Jo Shaw*

Review Essay: G. Amato, Antitrust and the Bounds of Power: The Dilemma of Liberal

Democracy in the History of the Market, (Hart Publishing 1997); S. Anderman, EC

Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Regulating Innovation, (Clarendon

Press 1998); M. Cini and L. McGowan, Competition Policy in the European Union,

(Macmillan 1998); C.D. Ehlermann and L.L. Laudati (eds), European Competition

Law Annual, 1997, The Objectives of Competition Policy (Hart Publishing 1998); M.

Furse, Competition Law of the UK and EC, London (Blackstone Press 1999); D.J.

Gerber, Law and Competition in Twentieth Century Europe: Protecting Prometheus

(Clarendon Press 1998); D.G. Goyder, EC Competition Law, 3rd Edition, (Clarendon

Press 1998); V. Korah, An Introductory Guide to EC Competition Law, 6th Edition,

(Hart Publishing 1997); L. Ortiz Blanco, European Community Competition Procedure,

(Clarendon Press 1996); B.J. Rodger and A. MacCulloch, Competition Law and Policy

in the European Community and United Kingdom, (Cavendish 1999); W. Sauter,

Competition Law and Industrial Policy in the EU (Clarendon Press 1997).

The range of books sampled in this brief review of some recent English-language

works on competition law and policy highlights the richness and variety of the book-

length treatments of this segment of European Community law. With the exception of

the introductory textbooks by Furse and Rodgers/MacCulloch, which treat EC law

and UK law in parallel specifically for teaching purposes, each of these works is

essentially focused on the legal and/or policy-making frameworks and activities of the

European Union and its institutions, with reference, where appropriate, to the

Member States and other competition law systems. However, reflecting the fact that

EU competition policy is not an isolated domain, many of the works are heavily laced

with cross-national or international comparisons (e.g., in the cases of Gerber and

Amato to demonstrate the relevance of various influences upon the evolution of EC

competition law, in the case of Korah to highlight weaknesses at the heart of the

economic thinking of the Commission and the Court, or in the case of a number of

contributions to Ehlermann/Laudati as well as in sections of Cini/McGowan, and in

Furse, in order to situate the continuing evolution of EU competition policy within an

emerging international antitrust order). History and historical influences play a

notable role in many of the books: Goyder’s work has always been notable for

containing an important historical section on the evolution of EU competition policy

across the forty years, or so, of the Treaty of Rome, but it is now joined by the

historical treatments of Gerber and Amato, the political scientists’ historical overview

written by Cini and McGowan and a useful—if brief—attempt to look forwards by

European Law Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2, June 1999, pp. 103–113

© Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1999, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK

and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA

* Jo Shaw, Professor of European Law, University of Leeds.