Foreign Commerce and the Antitrust Laws

Abstract

FOREIGN COMMERCE AND THE ANTITRUST LAWS. 3d ed. 2 Vol. Pp. xlviii, 887. By Wilbur Fugate. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982. $100. The present state of international antitrust may well breed cynicism among supporters of free competition and free trade. The new edition of Wilbur Fugate's treatise, like some other recent books on international antitrust, concentrates on tracing the expanding reach of United States antitrust law, the spread of American principles of competition to other nations, and the embodiment of these principles in international codes and declarations. These developments are surprising, in light of the odds against them. But little stressed in such surveys is the evidence that all national laws are heavily influenced by self-interest and mercantilist considerations, and that in most countries competition is honored more in the breach than in the observance, and in a substantial number rejected outright. The recent enactment in England, France, and Australia of laws aimed at counteracting United States antitrust investigations has shown that conflict and hindrance are far more common than cooperation in international antitrust enforcement.