CELS/USC Virtual Antitrust Workshop: 'The Political Morality of Antitrust'

Title: The Political Morality of Antitrust

Speaker: Professor Felipe Jiménez, University of Southern California 

Abstract: Antitrust law is at a critical juncture. After the critique of Neo-Brandeisians, the relative consensus about antitrust law’s normative foundations and its exclusive commitment to the maximization of economic welfare has been significantly eroded. While traditional antitrust scholars have engaged with the Neo-Brandeisian critique, they have not provided a fully articulated response to Neo-Brandeisians’ claims about the political morality of antitrust. Instead, the response has been at the level of implementation: according to traditional antitrust scholars, Neo-Brandeisians provide a set of lofty values and goals, but very little by way of workable standards and procedures. This Article argues that Neo-Brandeisians are right at the level of normative foundations: antitrust law is a political project that instantiates and aims to realize a plurality of moral and political commitments. Consistently with this claim, this Article offers a theory of the values that antitrust law realizes and that explain why it ought to be part of the legal institutions of a just society. But, in line with the concerns of mainstream antitrust scholars, this Article presents a systematic account of the questions raised by the implementation of antitrust law—i.e., how the moral point of antitrust law should translate into specific institutional designs, governance structures, and decision procedures. In this way, the argument weaves in the use of economics as an implementation tool and allows for an integration of the insights of mainstream antitrust law and economics within a more attractive political theory. In this aspect, this Article brings theoretical work in other areas of law, including torts and contracts, to bear on the debate over antitrust law’s foundations and its implementation.  

To register your interest for this event please contact Dr Oke Odudu (oo201@cam.ac.uk)