Book Description

Significant power is exercised through webs created between different systems of national law, influenced by governments but also by transnational actors such as global corporations and transnational NGOs, and often with an overlay of formal international law or of substantial influence from international institutions. Studying the procedures used by competition institutions (dealing with specific cases concerning monopolies, mergers, anti-competitive practices) this volumes uses a template to study practices of many national institutions and the EU, and examines the interactions among these and with prescriptions of influential international bodies. Together these form a web, with existing procedural rules and practices in a particular institution criticized and alternatives championed and transmitted partly by prescription and partly by arguments of major global law firms, of global corporations, and of consultants dispatched by the ICN and other agencies. This whole process, examined for the first time in this book, is the real global governance of the procedural law and practices of market supervision under competition rules. Delving deeply into their jurisdictions and internationally, the contributors illuminate the inner workings of the systems and expose the procedure, process, and performance norms embedded within. Case studies are drawn from Australia, Canada, Chile, China, Japan, South Africa, the USA, and the EU, as well as four leading international institutions involved in antitrust, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the International Competition Network. The results reveal a convergence of these norms across the very different systems, a procedural norms convergence that offers a necessary counterpart to studies on substantive rule convergence. These results provide benchmarks for the field, suggest possibilities for future development, and offer lessons for all interested in competition law and global governance.