Competition Law Fragmentation in a Globalizing World

Beaton‐Wells, Caron, and Ariel Ezrachi (eds.). 2011 . Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement . Oxford: Hart Publishing. Pp. xvi + 455. Gerber, David J. 2010 . Global Competition: Law, Markets, and Globalization . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xx + 394. Lianos, Ioannis, and D. Daniel Sokol (eds.). 2012 . The Global Limits of Competition Law . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Pp. xiv + 282. This is a review essay of Caron Beaton‐Wells and Ariel Ezrachi (eds.), Criminalising Cartels: Critical Studies of an International Regulatory Movement ( 2011 ); David J. Gerber, Global Competition: Law, Markets, and Globalization (2010); and Ioannis Lianos and D. Daniel Sokol (eds.), The Global Limits of Competition Law ( 2012 ). It explores the fragmented nature of national competition laws in the context of globalization and several harmonizing trends: the defining role of economics, the strong influence of US antitrust economics and law internationally, and the relative insularity of competition law from other subdisciplines of law. The recent emergence of competition regimes, especially in the BRICS countries, challenges these harmonizing trends, reducing US hegemony. Economics will remain central but cultural and institutional factors that reflect societal values will become more significant. This leads to a contradiction of convergence as to the benefits of competition law internationally and continuing fragmentation along national lines.