Neumann, Manfred; Weigand, Jürgen --- "Introduction" [2004] ELECD 176; in Neumann, Manfred; Weigand, Jürgen (eds), "The International Handbook of Competition" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004)

Book Title: The International Handbook of Competition

Editor(s): Neumann, Manfred; Weigand, Jürgen

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843760542

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Neumann, Manfred; Weigand, Jürgen

Number of pages: 15

Extract:

Introduction
Manfred Neumann and Jürgen Weigand



Competition is a constitutive property of a market economy following
immediately from the right of each individual to pursue his or her own
interest. Therefore competition policy is a cornerstone of economic policy
in a market economy. In fact, following the lead of US antitrust, most
industrialized countries now have introduced some kind of competition
policy. In particular, in the European Union competition policy has been
accorded a constitutional status. As stated in Article 4 of the EC Treaty,
the economic policy of the member states and the Community shall be
conducted in `accordance with the principle of an open market economy
and free competition' and Article 3, lit g, says that competition must not be
distorted, either by private restraints or by government interference.
In the history of ideas, competition as a salient feature of a free society
can be traced back at least to John Locke (1690) who propounded that
everybody has the unalienable right to pursue his or her own happiness.
This idea gathered momentum from its propagation in the Bill of Rights
of Virginia and the ensuing constitution of the United States of America.
Given limited resources, the endeavor of countless individuals to improve
their well-being by acquiring command over goods is necessarily conducive
to competition. This idea found its way into legislation of the USA by the
Sherman Act of 1890 which prohibits restraint of competition in most
general terms.
This legislation originally found hardly any support ...