Antitrust enforcement is entering a period of transition in the United States. The election of Barack Obama as President and his executive branch, regulatory, and judicial appointments will have important consequences for antitrust law and enforcement, although most observers believe that these changes will be relatively modest both substantively and in comparison to the matters of banking reform and economic stimulus.
As part of that process of change, there has been no shortage of advice offered to first the Transition Team and now the Administration about how to handle competition policy going forward. Two of the more substantial efforts in this regard have come from well-established antitrust groups with very different perspectives and memberships. Both the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and the American Antitrust Institute have offered sophisticated lengthy public advice to the new Administration on how best to proceed in the competition law field. The reports are very different in nature and reflect the different nature of the institutions that prepared them. This essay takes a brief look at the transition reports offered by each organization and the vision they would offer for the new Administration.
World Competition