Course Description
Teaches students about antitrust law by placing it within the broader scope of the American antimonopoly tradition. Enables students to engage in the ongoing debate and answer the perennial question of our time: how should we regulate market competition in a liberal democracy?
Athena Title
Fat Cats and Monopoly Money
Prerequisite
Students must be enrolled in the School of Law to register for this course
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student learning Outcomes
- Students will be able to explain and analyze the origins and content of the leading U.S. antitrust statutes.
- Students will be able to analyze various moments of heightened antimonopoly sentiment in America and the policy and political repercussions in antitrust law and adjacent areas.
- Students will be able to understand how both business methods and technologies have changed over time, and how antitrust law has addressed those changes.
- Students will be able to understand and analyze the current applications of antitrust law and economics—i.e., the consumer welfare standard—which includes anti-cartel and anti-monopolization provisions of antitrust law and how those are applied to various business arrangements.
- Students will be able to apply historical frameworks to past and present eras of antitrust law, which requires understanding the periodization of antitrust law and policy.
Topical Outline
- This course covers U.S. antitrust law, the law regulating business competition, and the political and economic analysis that has guided it over time. It places antitrust law, or competition policy, in its historical context and explores how the law has changed over time. Students do not need a background in economics but should have an interest in the economic analysis of the law. The course will contextualize and analyze case studies in American antimonopoly movement politics, policies, litigation strategies, and case law. The goal is to understand the traditions of American antimonopoly, agencies and institutions, and leading antitrust cases. Selected readings will draw from various industry contexts, including horizontal collusion, vertical restraints, predatory pricing, exclusionary conduct, and merger review. The course's final section will ask students to apply what they have learned to 21st-century issues.
