Antitrust and the Bounds of Power – 25 Years On

Book excerpt: This collection of essays addresses the transformations ongoing in the field of competition law by analysing current developments through the prism of Giuliano Amato's Antitrust and the Bounds of Power – thereby building an intellectual bridge between past and present. Giuliano Amato's book, Antitrust and the Bounds of Power: The Dilemma of Liberal Democracy in the History of the Market was published by Hart in 1997. It has predicted, articulated, and explained many of the changes that have taken place in competition law in the last 25 years, and it is referred to by generations of competition lawyers as a key theoretical work. There are many mutually invigorating reasons and explanations for the paradigmatic transformations that have occurred in competition law, economics, and policy since the 1990s. Some are triggered by the internal evolution of competition law; others are determined by the broader societal context. In this book, leading competition law thinkers reflect on these metamorphoses; they explore the state of affairs in the field, connecting it with and advancing their analyses through the ideas developed by Giuliano Amato in his ground-breaking book. With an afterword by Giuliano Amato and a foreword by Frédéric Jenny, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the evolution of competition law.