Globalization and the Limits of National Merger Control Laws

In the early 21st-century, companies pursue their goals with little regard for national borders. However, it remains true that business activity is regulated to a significant extent by each national jurisdiction. This is particularly true of mergers; as anyone knows who has ever been involved in a transnational merger in multiple jurisdictions, the knottiest problems and issues arise from variations in national competition and merger laws. This text offers an in-depth proposal for an international merger control regime that is firmly grounded in and supported by a framework of economic and legal theory. It arrives at its conclusions along three major avenues: a study of the concepts of global public good and consumer welfare that underlie the progress of globalization; detailed analyses of the two most important and highly developed merger law systems, those of the European Union and the United States; and a systematic and comprehensive review of the major existing proposals, both institutional and scholarly, for an international merger control regime. A special chapter is devoted to the complex custodial role of the World Trade Organization, both in its present activity and as it is envisioned in the various proposals.