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The Modernisation of EC Antitrust Law
By
Rein Wesseling
Description
In recent years
European Community (EC) competition law has come under fire.
Continued criticism of all aspects of the means by which EC
competition law is enforced has brought to light ineffectiveness of
the present system. Consequently the European Commission has
responded by issuing the “White Paper on Modernisation”,which
sets out its vision on the future of EC competition law.
This new book
takes a step back, and tries to understand the current challenges to
EC competition policy by examining the origins of the Community’s
competition law system. In the first part of the book the author
sketches the development of Community competition law enforcement
between the European Economic Community, established in 1958, and the
European Union of today. Taking this dynamic perspective on EC
competition law, the second part of the book addresses topical
problems of EC competition policy; the pertinent objectives, the
institutional framework, the division of jurisdiction between the
Community and Member States, and decentralised enforcement of
Community law. Notably, the author’s conclusions diverge
considerably from the analysis found in the Commission White Paper on
Modernisation. The author proposes various alternative solutions to
the existing problems which, arguably, fit better within the overall
constitutional development of the Community than the solutions
offered by the Commission. The book will be of interest to
competition lawyers as well as to all those interested in the
constitutional development of the European Community.
Rein Wesseling is
a practising lawyer with the law firm De Brauw,Blackstone Westbroek
in Amsterdam.
Contents
Part 1 The
development of the current system of EC antitrust law enforcement:
the transformation of Community Antitrust Law - enforcement,
introduction, conclusion; the transformation of the Community\\\'s
constitution - from international treaty to constitutional charter,
from negative to positive integration, beyond the internal market,
conclusion. Part 2 The modernisation of EC antitrust law in light of
the general development of EC law: objectives of EC antitrust law -
introduction, critique of EC Antitrust law objectives, analysis of
the criticism of EC antitrust policy objectives, modernisation of EC
antitrust policy objectives, conclusion; the division of jurisdiction
between EC and member state antitrust laws - introduction, the
relationship between Articles 81 and 82 EC and national antitrust
law, mergers, the modernisation of community antitrust law
jurisdiction, conclusion; institutional issues at the central level -
introduction, EC antitrust legislation, enforcement procedure,
evaluation of the present system, independent agency, the
modernisation of the institutional framework, conclusion;
institutional issues at the central level - introduction, current
framework, the first attempt to decentralise - the Commission
notices, more radical reform - the White Paper on Modernisation,
modernisation of co-operation between the Commission and national
institutions, conclusion.
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