Lanterna Rally

Author: Steven Van Uytsel

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

The concept of international competition law has caught on in the academic world and more in specific in the English literature on competition law. With the publication of books like International Competition Law and Emerging Principles of International Competition Law, a trend has been set in the development of a new discipline within competition law. The former work describes international competition law as an agreement that should be adopted within the WTO framework. At the end of the book, a possible model of a competition law agreement for the WTO regime is given. In doing so, the book indicates that international competition law is still de lege ferenda. By using “emerging principles” in the title, the latter work seems to partly confirm this point of view. International competition law is emerging, but it is not yet a fully grown discipline within competition law due to the absence of any action within the WTO. This paper will question whether international competition law does not yet exist in today's world or whether it is just an emerging discipline. This question will indirectly affect the presumption of whether a WTO agreement is necessary in order to speak about international competition law. Indeed, it is necessary to investigate what is exactly meant by the word international. If this word refers to a discussion of norms that are the sources of public international law, international competition law may be well in the realm of the WTO or any other treaty. If this word, on the contrary, refers to the subject dealt with, international competition law may well be that part of domestic competition law dealing with its territorial scope. The discussion on whether international competition law actually exists and what the content could be of this discipline, resembles the early discussions on the development of international criminal law as a discipline within criminal law. As the content of international criminal law has gradually developed to a reasonably defined content, the analysis of what international competition law is or could be will draw on a parallel with international criminal law. More in specific, this paper will have to investigate to what extent there have been similar developments in a competition law context as there have been in a criminal law context that have led to the discipline of international criminal law. For this purpose, the paper will introduce a categorization of Georg Schwarzenberger in relation to international criminal law. Note, however, that it is not the purpose of this paper to give a detailed list of examples of competition law for each of the developments in competition law. The paper will be structured as follows. Section 2 will introduce the categorization in international criminal law as has been conceptualized by Schwarzenberger in his article The Problem of an International Criminal Law. This categorization reveals six different meanings of the concept international criminal law. Based on these six meanings, Section 3 will describe whether there have been parallel developments within competition law. Hence, this section will investigate into the international scope of domestic competition law, the international cooperation for the enforcement of domestic competition law, the internationally prescribed or authorized competition laws or the existence of international substantive competition law. In Section 4 will then theoretically frame the concept of international competition law as it exists today. As a conclusion, this paper will state international competition law exists. However, the existing international competition law has two rather than one dimension.