Antitrust (Over-?)Confidence

Posted by D. Daniel Sokol

Our friends at Truth on the Market, Thom Lambert of MU School of Law and Josh Wright of GMU Law School, have provided a nice  opening essay to the transcript of the conference at Chicago Loyola Institute for Consumer Antitrust Studies on the future of single firm conduct.  Lambert and Wright title their work Antitrust (Over-?)Confidence.

ABSTRACT: On October 5, 2007, a group of antitrust scholars convened on Chicago's Near North Side to discuss monopolization law. In the course of their freewheeling but fascinating conversation, a number of broad themes emerged. Those themes can best be understood in contrast to a body of antitrust scholarship that was born six miles to the south, at the University of Chicago. Most notably, the North Side discussants demonstrate a hearty confidence in the antitrust enterprise-a confidence that is not shared by Chicago School scholars, who generally advocate a more modest antitrust. As scholars who are more sympathetic to Chicago School views, we are somewhat skeptical. While we applaud many the of the insights and inquiries raised during the conversation, and certainly this sort of discussion in general, our task in this article is to draft a critical analysis of the October 5 conversation. In particular, we critique the North Side discussants' vision of a big antitrust that would place equal emphasis on Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and would expand private enforcement of Section 2.

Update of January 29: The transcript of the conference is now available on SSRN.