Spring 2018 Course Schedule

Antitrust Law (LAW-692-001)
James May

Meets: 10:00 AM - 11:50 AM (MoWe) - Warren - Room N101

Enrolled: 19 / Limit: 22

Administrator Access


Notices

Assessment: In-class exam, essay questions,In-class exam, multiple-choice questions,In-class exam, open book,In-class exam, closed book,Class Participation

Description

Examines the laws that protect consumers by ensuring competition in the marketplace. Topics include agreements among rivals, agreements between firms and their suppliers and customers, monopolization, mergers, and antitrust and the "new economy." The course goes beyond Supreme Court case law to study influential modern lower court decisions and government enforcement guidelines. Although economic concepts and thinking characteristic of contemporary antitrust analysis are integrated throughout, the economic content of the course is accessible to students without background in that field.

Textbooks and Other Materials

The textbook information on this page was provided by the instructor. Students should use this information when considering purchases from the AU Campus Store or other vendors. Students may check to determine if books are currently available for purchase online.

The casebook for the course will be Andrew Gavil, William Kovacic, Jonathan Baker, and Joshua Wright, Antitrust Law in Perspective: Cases, Concepts and Problems in Competition Policy (West Academic Publishing, 3d ed. 2016) ISBN-10: 0314266054 ISBN-13: 978-0314266057

First Class Readings

For our first class session, please read and be prepared to discuss: U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division Document, “Antitrust and the Consumer,” posted in the Handouts folder of the Course Materials section of the MyWCL site for the course; Casebook 1-5, 17-28(top), 35-37(middle), 39(bottom)-47, 1367, 1415 (Sherman Act §§ 1 and 2). Background (to read as convenient during the first two to three weeks of the course): Casebook 59-67. While antitrust law heavily involves the application of basic economic principles to varied forms of business conduct, it is not necessary to have studied economics previously to excel in the course and the field. If you have not taken a basic course in microeconomics before, however (or if you have done so and want to brush up on some fundamental ideas and principles after reading casebook pages 17-28), you should view the narrated PowerPoint presentation entitled “Introduction to Microeconomics Part One.” (Ignore the fact that the first slide is labeled “Introduction to Microeconomics (Continued)”–it really is Part One.) The link to this mp4 file is posted at the MyWCL site for the course. The table of cost figures prominently discussed in this narrated PowerPoint presentation is posted at the MyWCL site for the course in the “Handouts” folder as “02 Key Dimensions of Firm Costs.”

Syllabus

Use your MyAU username and password to access the syllabus in the following format(s):