Antitrust is Law Enforcement

[Commentary] At the end of October, Jonathan Baker, Fiona Scott Morton, and I organized a day-long conference entitled Unlocking the Promise of Antitrust Enforcement. Our premise was simple: In a time when the purpose and future of antitrust is again an important topic of political discourse, we need to understand what antitrust enforcers can do today with the laws that exist right now. Laws that have been on the books for a long time – The Sherman Act was passed in 1890 – but which retain their vitality. And their importance. The conference, which was sponsored by the Washington College of Law at American University and the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, featured nine presentations from a series of extraordinarily-distinguished economists and lawyers. And these presentations will be published next Spring in a special issue of the Yale Law Journal. I see one simple idea at the heart of the nine presentations: Antitrust is law enforcement.