Archive for September 30th, 2013
The Case for some Formalism in Rules of Competition Law
Our economist friends often believe that legal formalism is useless.
I have personally complained about the bad influence that formalistic lawyers had in competition proceedings.
Now, “assume” an economist had written the Treaty rules on Competition. This would give something like:
- Article 101 TFEU: Anticompetitive coordination is unlawful.
- Article 102 TFEU: Anticompetitive foreclosure is unlawful.
With such loose rules, the economic cost of enforcing the law would skyrocket. And so would the economic cost of complying with the law.
The sole saving achieved would be the ink saved in printing and reprinting the Treaty.
Or why too little legal formalism is economically inefficient.
