Antitrust and Trade Regulation Commons^™

Antitrust Laws And The Territorial Principle, G. H. Haight

Vanderbilt Law Review

During the past few years there has been extensive discussion regarding the extraterritorial application of antitrust laws and some attempts have been made to consider the matter in the context of public international law principles.' Notwithstanding objections raised by foreign governments to court orders and subpoenas directed to foreign corporations in relation to their activities abroad, some commentators still appear to consider that there are few, if any, limitations imposed by law upon such assertions of penal power. This position requires reexamination, and in undertaking a review it will be relevant to consider the nature and effect of new antitrust …

Exclusive Arrangements And Refusal To Deal Problems, Reynolds C. Seitz

Vanderbilt Law Review

Justification for including a discussion on exclusive dealing arrangements and on refusal to deal decisions in a symposium devoted to trade practices rests upon the practical consideration that there exists on the part of business management a considerable interest in the two commercial tools.

Business executives find appeal in the prospect of using a contract calling for exclusive dealing.' Those engaged in commerce have for a variety of purposes frequently employed as a lever the refusal to deal.

Possible antitrust implications in the use of the two devices has not always been understood by business. In recent years, however, the …

A New Approach To Resale Price Maintenance, James A. Maclachlan

Vanderbilt Law Review

Resale price maintenance has had a lively legal history. After court decisions under the Sherman Act and the Federal Trade Commission Act had discouraged it in the first third of the current century,' it was encouraged by Fair Trade Acts in so many states as to develop an impractical cleavage between state and federal law. Congress responded by passing the Miller-Tidings Act in 1937. This made the relevant antitrust laws inapplicable to resale price maintenance contracts valid by the law of the state where resale is to be made. The amendment conformed in essential respects to the structure of the …

Legal, Economic And Political Considerations Involved In Mergers, Joseph W. Burns

Vanderbilt Law Review

Although the merger statute--section 7 of 'the Clayton Act'--was enacted in 1914, it was forty years before it assumed any importance in the antitrust field. The original statute, applicable to acquisitions of stock but not to acquisitions of assets, was wholly ineffective to prevent mergers. Enforcement efforts were insignificant...

If Congress expected the 1950 amendment to solve all the merger problems which were discussed prior to its enactment, this expectation has not been realized. Congressional committees in both the House and Senate have instituted investigations and held public hearings which have indicated considerable dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of section 7 …

Statutory Restrictions On Selling Below Cost, Homer Clark

Vanderbilt Law Review

The rules of the American game of competition are numerous, diverse and often inexplicable, but none of them is as dubious in purpose or as devious in operation as those found in the statutes prohibiting sales below cost. Such statutes have been enacted in the overwhelming majority of states,' the earliest ones dating back to the Great Depression. Indeed their philosophy has infected the federal antitrust laws. That the impetus back of these statutes was not just a product of depression fears and frustrations is shown by their passage after the depression was over in some states, and during the …

Senate Bill No. Ii And Antitrust Policy, Kenneth S. Carlston

Vanderbilt Law Review

The history of the judicial interpretation of the Sherman Act' is a history of the legislative process working through the mechanisms of the judicial process. Starting with an act phrased in the most general of terms, nearly seventy years of judicial administration have developed a system of interdependent postulates analogous to legislative norms. None of these postulates can be considered as prevailing over all others. But the binding thread of the Sherman Act is the proposition that the market shall be dynamic, manifesting sufficient energy through price competition by the organizations participating in the market to ensure that the advances …

Federal Control In The Food And Drug Industries, Thomas W. Christopher

Vanderbilt Law Review

If the attention or lack of attention law reviews give to a subject is indicative of the amount of governmental control therein, then one would conclude that there is little federal regulation in the food and drug fields. The fact is, however, that there are more than 1,200 pages of federal statutes and administrative regulations affecting the food and drug industries, and no industry is more tightly controlled. The antitrust, securities, and labor statutes, for example, are, if anything, less stringent.

In the main, the approach of food and drug regulation is from a different point of view than that …

The Lawyer's Role Before Litigation, Lee Loevinger

Vanderbilt Law Review

A lawyer is consulted regarding antitrust aspects of proposed business activities; or regarding the possibility that his client may have a cause of action under some antitrust law. What is his role at this stage? What are his responsibilities? Would these be substantially different if the client's problems had no antitrust element?

The system of formulating legal principles and studying and teaching law on the basis of the decisions of litigated cases has one serious shortcoming, at least, in its tendency to obscure the dual role of the lawyer: first as counsel, and second as advocate. Both lawyers and laymen …