Competition law and policy in Egypt -with its long- history of socialism- are not just a luxury but constitute a critical necessity for creating a fair and open market economy. Egypt has been considering enactment of a competition law since 1995, and finally the law was issued in 2005. Given the potential importance of this legislation there is much uncertainty about how this law will be applied. One way of gaining an insight into this is by considering what factors (national and international) have influenced the development of the competition law in Egypt, and what roles these factors are likely to play in the shaping and implementation of such a law. Therefore, the research question that the thesis addresses is: what were the international and national factors that have affected the adoption of the competition law and policy in Egypt? And how did they influence its development and implementation? This question is addressed in three different parts in the thesis: the first part studies the phenomena of the adoption of competition laws in developing countries and the design and shape of such laws. Three models that are followed by developing countries in the process of designing their competition laws are discussed. The first model deals with a `cut and paste' approach, which is found when a country adopts uncritically the competition laws of a developed country; while the second deals with a `contextualised' approach according to which the country only adopts basic concepts from developed countries and carefully adapts the law to suit its country-specific requirements. Besides these two models, there is a `tailor-made' approach adopted by a smaller number of developing countries, which tailors specific competition rules to fit their market's characteristics. In the second part, the key factors that have played a role in the development and shaping of the competition legislation in Egypt and that are likely to influence the institutional framework of such a law, are surveyed. The main argument is that the central dynamic in both the creation of the statute and its structuring has been the interaction of domestic pressure (the 1991 Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme (ERSAP) coupled with the legal reform as means to establish a market environment that facilitates competition and develop its national economy) and the international influence from its major trading partner namely the EU, who sought to "push" the Egyptian legislators in certain directions. In the third and final part, the thesis provides insights into how the interaction of the domestic and international factors affected the shape of the Egyptian competition law and how the law will likely be applied. These two concepts-domestic pressure and international influence-are also explored in relation to the theory of institutional development. There has been little systematic study of how the laws in developing countries have enacted or even useful insights of what factors have influenced their implementation and development to be generated. Thus, the thesis offers some analytical tools that can provide insight into the evolution of competition law in Egypt and thereby into the factors that have influenced its design and probably its operations in the future. These tools have potentially far broader applications. I expect them to prove valuable for analysing any situation in which a introduction of a national law is or may be influenced and developed by factors within and beyond its borders, especially in the context of economic globalisation, but I leave that topic for future exploration.

This study examines the changing nature and role of "soft law" in international law. Focusing on international `economic' soft law and regulation, the study contends that the transformation of international economy and politics in the 1980s have culminated in a paradigm shift in the international economic soft law and regulation changing both its nature and role. The leading "state-centric" paradigm of 1960s and 1970s has been replaced by a dual "globalist" paradigm, which consists of two sub-paradigms: the "non-state actor" and the "hegemonic state". The "non-state actor" paradigm refers to a non-state normative order, centred on the regulatory role of non-state actors. This paradigm has gained ground to (i) meet business need for flexible and efficient legal instrument, (ii) respond on a voluntary basis to `societal expectations'. The "hegemonic state" paradigm, on the other hand, indicates a move from soft law and de-regulation to hard law and re-regulation. The major reasons for this move are to facilitate the expansion of market economy and to accomplish the creation of a disciplined global market through bilateral and multilateral legalisation as well as through international economic institutions. Yet, this tendency of re-regulation has it is argued often been obscured by the dominant market-centred vocabulary, which promotes a pluralistic, hybrid and informal rule-setting and implementation model. On the whole, this study recognises that soft law may represent an opportunity for the normative development of international law by assuming an authoritative, interpretative or complementary role. Soft law can also promote a more participatory and democratic rule-making. The study nevertheless holds that in the foreseeable future the trend towards soft, voluntary, informal, and decentred regulation may have adverse effects on the already weak normative structure of international law, blurring further its normativity threshold by incorporating political and economical elements in a contextual and deformalised way

In this thesis, the question is asked whether, in the light of the ’more economic approach’ adopted in recent years, it is correct to classify metal-neutral revenue-sharing airline alliances as restrictive of competition by object and interpret this concept in a wider sense under Article 101(1) TFEU. By relying on the example and analysis of airline alliances and in particular metal-neutral revenue-sharing alliances, the thesis argues that the ’orthodox’ or wider interpretation of restriction by object is correct and, as such, does not contradict the idea behind the more economic approach of EU competition law. However, the analysis of restriction by object has to take into account the effects of Article 101 TFEU as a whole, including Article 101(3) TFEU. Therefore this wider interpretation of object restrictions must be complemented by a realistic application of Article 101(3) TFEU, in order to achieve the desired outcome of an administrable and efficient enforcement regime that minimises error costs. This is a legal thesis. It will review the EU competition law approach to airline alliances and use the example of airline alliances to explore the issue of restriction by object and its interaction with Article 101(3) TFEU. The thesis examines both from an economic and legal point of view all those aspects of strategic alliances, air transport and strategic airline alliances that are essential for a thorough understanding of their characteristics when analysed under Article 101(1) and 101(3) TFEU. The research question concentrates on the dichotomy of Article 101 TFEU, and it is concluded that the experience of the aviation industry supports the thesis.

No description available.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Commission embarked on a comprehensive review and came up with a series of new proposals for legislation in its modernisation and reform packages. One of the most striking features of the Commission’s efforts is the inclusion of economic factors into competition law analyses, allowing greater scope for economic efficiency arguments in its competitive analysis in different competition law areas, such as restrictive agreements, mergers and unilateral behaviour. -- The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of efficiencies and their role in different areas of ED competition law. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part I of the thesis examines the concept of efficiency, the theory of welfare standards, and the relationship between such standards and efficiencies under different welfare standards. It explains the importance of efficiency considerations in competition law analysis and examines the main methodologies to take into account efficiency considerations. While discussing these methodologies, the thesis establishes the distinction between efficiencies as a defence to an otherwise anti-competitive conduct and efficiencies as a ’rebuttal’ and/or a ’factor’ in the overall assessment of the conduct. Part I also considers the source of efficiency gains and provided a typology of efficiencies to identify the potential types of efficiencies that are used in competition law analysis. -- In Part II, the thesis undertakes an extensive review as to how efficiencies are treated under the EU Merger Regulation, Article 101 TFEU and Article 102 TFEU. The thesis reviews the efficiency evaluation criteria and the European Commission’s past and current decisional practice to understand the role of efficiencies under EU competition law. The thesis also discusses the burden of proof in claiming and verifying efficiencies.

Since the beginning of the process of economic reform and the introduction of the “Open Door Policy” in 1978, the People’s Republic of China has made remarkable progress in introducing competition to most sectors of its economy. Furthermore, during this transitional period, the enactment of industrial policies and foreign direct investment have played a key role in reshaping Chinese industrial structure and favouring the development of competition policy and law. After more than a decade of debates and drafting, on 30 August 2007, China adopted the Anti-Monopoly Law (hereinafter, “AML”), which represents the first comprehensive code in the field of competition law in the country. Competition law reforms in China and, in particular, the enactment of the AML, have been the subject of intense scholarly interest both in China and the West. Most early works of China’s AML focused on the historical review of the evolution of competition law in China, on the analysis of the legal provisions of the AML and speculations about its effectiveness. This PhD thesis will revisit these arguments and will attempt to tackle some further empirical and theoretical questions left hitherto unanswered. What sort of competition law have Chinese policymakers intended to create? What is the relationship between competition policy and other governmental policies? What purposes are served by enforcing competition law? And, finally, what is the status of competition law in China’s socialist market economy, both ideologically and practically? These questions will be answered by focusing on specific issues such as: merger policy and practice, administrative monopolies and State-owned enterprises, which are all particularly significant to understand how competition law functions in contemporary China.

This thesis analyses structural separation in the electronic communications market. It examines the factors that may lead competition and sectorial regulators to consider structural separation. It argues that the European Commission, when called upon to apply a sanction and choose a behavioural or structural remedy, should take into consideration the positive effects that, under certain conditions, may derive from structural separation in terms of (i) prevention of abuses and deterrence of such abuses and (ii) enhancement of competition. The thesis begins by setting out both exploitative and exclusionary abuses in the provision of electronic communications services provided through vertically-integrated structures (chapter II). It then (chapter III) considers alternative remedies to structural separation namely ex ante remedies available (i.e. price caps; recently introduced provisions on functional separation to prevent refusal to supply, margin squeeze, cross-subsidisation etc.); and looks at how, and with what results, ex post remedies have been imposed until now (chapter IV). The thesis examines functional separation as introduced by the BT Group creating, under OFCOM’s supervision, a separate access division (‘Openreach’). Following this model, Art. 2 of Dir. 2009/140/EC amended the Access Directive 2002, making functional separation one of the remedies to be proposed by the regulators to the Commission for approval (the directive also introduces art. 13(b) on voluntary ownership separation of the local access network assets as a more radical, but voluntary, form of separation). The question is whether the enforcer can go a step further, even in the presence of functional separation as a regulatory remedy, imposing structural separation in the presence of abuses of dominant position. On a strictly legal point of view the recent cases Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica at European level have demonstrated that the Commission (and the National Competition Authorities), in their enforcement activity, can go beyond regulatory provisions that may not be sufficient to avoid the most subtle forms of anticompetitive behaviours, such as margin squeeze. In other words, the compliance by the incumbent to the provisions of the sector regulator in setting, for instance, retail and wholesale prices, for the European Commission and the European Courts was not considered a sufficient reason to exclude the infringement of Article 102 TFEU putting in place margin squeeze practices. Once it is established that the incumbent might be still able to put in place exclusionary abuses even in the presence of ex ante (regulatory) measures, the thesis examines the modest impact that (i) pecuniary fines and (ii) functional separation have had in preventing abusive conducts. Both cases are linked to examples of recidivism. Examining pecuniary fines specifically, the thesis shows that on a quantitative point of view, these fines often represent an infinitesimal percentage of the total turnover of the telecommunications incumbents. Functional separation, either as an ex ante or ex post remedy, has proven not to be as effective as expected. This is evidenced by a study of the implementation of functional separation in the UK in the electronic communications sector which takes into consideration criticisms put forward by competitors in the Energy Sector Enquiry of 2007, stressing the importance of adopting structural remedies in both the gas and electricity generation and transmission markets. In Chapter V the role of commitments is discussed in order to establish what lessons can be learnt from the experience of structural separation in the energy sector. This is currently the category with the most relevant case-law at the European level. The discussion is underpinned by extensive literature and an analysis of the experience (cases E.ON Electricity3, RWE4 and ENI5, in particular). Therefore, chapters I to V provide the legal background (also in comparative terms, using examples from the energy sector) that could support the applicability of structural separation as a pro-competition remedy in the electronic communications sector. On the basis of existing case-law and experience, recourse to a sectorial comparative analysis drawn from the energy sector, the thesis shows that, in the presence of recurrent abuses and comparable foreclosing exclusionary effects, also in the electronic communications sector structural separation as an enforcement remedy should be also taken into consideration, going beyond the tradition pecuniary sanctions or functional separation (both as an enforcement remedy or as a new regulatory tool). The second part of the thesis demonstrates how structural separation can be considered not only ‘legally possible’ but also beneficial to competition. In Chapter VI the possibility of introducing structural separation in the electronic communications sector is examined in analogy to the energy sector in Europe, using the US experience of structural separation represented by the AT&T case (1981-1984) as an example. The division in the doctrine about the effects structural separation had on competition in the USA is highlighted. More importantly, the conclusion that the experience of local (or regional) vertical separation was tailored to the specific nature of the US communications market and is only partially applicable to Europe, where de facto local separation is already a reality, considering the fact that the electronic communications operators networks reflect the partition of Europe in 28 States. Though not directly applicable to the European scenario, it is nevertheless the first most relevant example of structural separation in the electronic communications sector and could not be ignored. After having analysed the various forms of separation identified by the doctrine (taking into consideration the examples collected by the OECD in the last thirteen years, in chapter VII), the thesis focuses in the conclusive chapter VIII on two very recent examples of structural separation in the electronic communications sector that can be applicable at the European level: one is the case of structural separation of Telecom New Zealand (2011) the other is currently under implementation in Australia, through structural separation of the national incumbent, Telstra. In both cases, structural separation takes place between network and services, and partially reflects the model of structural separation already implemented in the energy sector in Europe in the above-mentioned cases (E.ON, RWE and ENI). The fact that in New Zealand and Australia (where the government will deploy the New Broadband Network, once separated by the incumbent Telstra from 2018) structural separation has been considered beneficial to competition, represents a strong point in favour of structural separation as an enforcement remedy at European level. Two further elements reinforce the conclusion, acknowledging the benefits of structural separation. (i) The similarity in terms of anticompetitive effects between electronic communications and energy sectors (demonstrated in chapters II, III, IV and V of the thesis), underpin the argument that structural remedies adopted in the E.ON, RWE and ENI commitments decisions could be applied in the electronic communications sector; (ii) The fact that the European Courts in the Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica cases have reaffirmed the independence of the enforcer over the regulator demonstrates that, from a legal point of view, the Commission can go beyond the regulatory measures established by the regulator (including, on the basis of European Directive 2009/140/EC, also functional separation among these measures) imposing the most suitable remedy, including structural separation. All these factors underpin the conclusion. Once the form of structural separation that could be applicable in the European context has been identified (structural separation of the network from the companies providing electronic communications services being the most realistic) the European Commission (or the national competition authority) should not hesitate to take into consideration structural separation as a remedy, as per Article 7 of Regulation 1/2003/EC. The deterrent effect on the former incumbent; the fact that vertical structural separation erodes the position of strong market power of the vertically-integrated incumbent, and the fact that it may lead to more competition with regards services provision (possibly over a New Broadband Network deployed by the State, as in the Australian case from 2018) can be considered important factors in favour of structural separation.

The six journal articles and one book chapter that make up this submission demonstrate the rich potential of legal documents preserved in The National Archives of the UK as sources of new information about music and musicians. Key literature in relation to eighteenth-century legal studies, theatre research, historical musicology and the broader social context is first reviewed in order to appraise the current state of knowledge. Each of the publications takes as its starting point the author’s discovery of one or more lawsuits as a means of exploring professional music culture in England between 1690 and 1760. These encompass a wide diversity of human interactions, including financial agreements, patronage, benefit arrangements, consumption and debt. The litigation also yields details about the professional and personal lives of individuals ranging from iconic figures such as Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel to minor players like Giuseppe Manfredini and Elizabeth Frederica, whose names have been omitted from previous historical accounts. The publications make an original contribution to existing knowledge and scholarship, thereby demonstrating the value of legal documents as a field of musicological endeavour; while building on previous work on eighteenth-century equity lawsuits, they also include the first detailed studies of commonlaw documents undertaken by a musicologist. Legal records are notoriously challenging to use, and some of the issues involved in locating, reading and interpreting these abstruse documents are elucidated. The process of contextualization provides opportunities to deploy the material in ways that feed into a variety of historiographical perspectives, including cultural, social and women’s history. Legal documents open up a field of study that is ripe for further investigation; the outcomes will offer new perspectives on music and musicians viewed through the lens of the law, and make a compelling case for the continuing relevance of archival research.

No description available.

In examining the more economic approach in relation to the application of Article 102 TFEU to the software industry, this thesis advances and tests the hypothesis that the Commission’s more economic approach as currently formulated and pursued does not lend itself easily to the creation of consistent and coherent competition policy for the software industry. The thesis’ argument is based on the observation that the software industry involves more complexities than are capable of being captured by the static neo-classical economic theory underlying the Commission’s more economic approach in its present form. However, rather than merely advocating the supremacy of non-economic considerations grounded in ‘the law’ over either purely or predominantly considerations of economic efficiency, this thesis not only recognises the general importance of economic theory for competition law analysis but also that the actual integration of economic principles and law enforcement is a matter of degree. In accordance with this acknowledgement that competition law analysis necessitates a nuanced approach which involves the taking into account of both ‘the law’ and insights from economic theory, this thesis analyses the ‘traditional’ market-based approach to the ‘regulation’ of competition and advocates a more dynamic, more sophisticated and holistic approach to the object of regulation.