Egypt faced three central pressures to introduce its own competition law in 2005: first, EU/Egypt trade relations, second, introduction of the 1991 privatisation programme and third, its long-term desire by virtue of its Constitution to follow Islamic principles that condemn monopoly. However, Egypt was not forced to transplant EU rules as a result of EU/Egypt trade relations, although it is implicit that the EU deems it desirable to do so. By employing the functional method of comparative law for the purposes of the study on EU, Islamic, and Egyptian laws, the central argument of this thesis is that the Egyptian treatment of abuse of dominance is distinctive in three ways. First, Egyptian rules do not prohibit the practice of excessive pricing. Although in jurisdictions that prohibit it, most notably the EU system, competition authorities do not contemplate it as an investigation priority, it is argued that the lack of its prohibition raises Islamic law concerns and may lead to potential effects on the Egyptian economy. However, the difficulties which investigators face in settling such practice (as the South African Mittal case demonstrates) suggest that the Egyptian legislator may have adopted the right approach not to prohibit it; otherwise, this may have increased the likelihood of committing type II errors and, as a result, violate Islamic law principles of injustice. Second, in contrast with EU law, Egyptian rules do not cover the practice of below-cost margin squeeze. Although it is argued that its omission does not pose potential effects to the economy, it is suggested that it raises Islamic law concerns on the basis of fairness and intentions principles. Given that it is relatively easier to investigate, compared to excessive pricing, it is suggested that the Egyptian legislator should re-consider encompassing it in the future while drawing on the approach adopted in EU law. Third, the Egyptian Competition Law reflects the EU Commission‘s initiative of employing an effects-based approach to abuse of dominance. However, the Egyptian system, arguably influenced by the Islamic principles on market intervention, goes a little further to require an actual effects standard. Despite an effects-based analysis being difficult to employ in emerging economies with inadequate economic expertise like Egypt, it is argued in its favour for two reasons. First, it increases the chances of avoiding type II errors, which, similar to excessive pricing and margin squeeze, violate Islamic law and; second, the Egyptian Competition Authority‘s analysis in the Steel study shows that it is capable of employing this approach at this stage. For the purposes of re-considering the foregoing (gaps) in the future, the Egyptian Competition Authority should focus on increasing economic expertise and seek technical assistance from competition authorities of the developed world.

This thesis examines the emerging health and safety regulatory regime in Ghana's nascent upstream petroleum industry putting it in context with the approaches that have evolved in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf and the United States Outer Continental Shelf. The thesis analyses the existing regulatory framework in Ghana in terms both of the architecture and of the orientation of health and safety regulation. As regards the regulatory architecture, it concludes that it is characterised by fragmented agencies under piecemeal legislation. This has resulted in regulatory overlap and lacunae. Also, the regulatory agencies including the emerging upstream regulator are saddled with conflicting missions of resource exploitation and oversight of health and safety. The thesis further demonstrates that these agencies lack decision making independence and therefore cannot provide the independence and visibility required for a robust health and safety regime. Whereas the current regulatory challenge faced by Ghana has been experienced previously in the UKCS and the US OCS, and steps have been taken there to resolve the problem of conflicting functions, the precise approach differs in each case. But the degree to which the principle of separating functions has been observed in each case may be said to correlate with the robustness of the regime in question. As regards regulatory orientation, the thesis concludes that each of the three jurisdictions examined adopts a different approach: Ghana's is basically self-regulatory while the US OCS approach is prescriptive and the UKCS framework is characterised by goal-setting and process regulation. The thesis evaluates the three approaches and concludes that the management-based approach built in to the safety case of the UKCS has proved to be robust against the prescriptive performance-based approach of the US. The thesis therefore proceeds to recommend the adoption of the UK's approach for Ghana so that all the fragmented industry specific agencies and legislation would be replaced with a single independent and visible authority and a single goal setting legislation for occupational health and safety.

Article 82 is traditionally analysed as a tool to integrate and liberalise the European Single Market and to protect competition from distortion. As such there is no comprehensive discussion of the tensions that lie at the centre of the objective of protecting competition in the current rethinking of Article 82. With regard to exclusionary abuses, DG Competition has articulated that the main objective of Article 82 is the protection of competition in the market as a means of enhancing consumer welfare and of ensuring an efficient allocation of resources. This statement may conflict with some of the case law protecting the economic freedom of the market players derived from ordoliberalism. The latter is a well respected German legal tradition that holds both that government needs to be restrained from abuse of power, and that the free market has its limits. Economic rights deserve protection and vigilance is needed to ensure economic power is not misused or abused, not only in the interests of consumer welfare, but also in the interests of the economic liberty of the individual. This thesis considers the tension between the goals of protecting economic freedom and the promotion of consumer welfare in the application of Article 82. Presupposing that economic freedom and consumer welfare are in opposition to one another, such tension is only set to intensify and must be given appropriate weight in considering the extent to which DG Competition can or should try to move to a consumer welfare standard. Changing the interpretation of protection of competition from economic freedom to consumer welfare within Article 82 can undermine a fundamental right if economic freedom is considered a fundamental right in the Community legal order. However, consumer welfare can also be seen as an opportunity, if properly debated or agreed to by the ECJ, to adopt a more economics-based approach to Article 82.

The thesis assesses the causes and implications of Turkey's alignment with European Union (EU) policies and institutions in the areas of technical legislation (TL) and antitrust between 1996 and 2010. It argues that EU conditionality, based on the promise of positive rewards such as full membership, largely accounts for Turkey's high record in adopting EU policies and institutions in both areas, in rational-institutionalist fashion. This is because, in welldefined periods, the Turkish government deemed EU conditionality credible enough to walTant major adoption activities. However, regarding TL, EU-related domestic utility considerations (DUCs) played a crucial pali in suppOliing the development of the implementation and to some extent the enforcement dimensions. In antitrust, adoption and enforcement were also crucially suppOlied by non-EU factors, not least the regulatory drive that followed the 2000-2001 financial crises. By contrast, social-constructivist EU-related factors only played a marginal role with regard to adoption, implementation and enforcement. To avoid a bias toward EU explanations, I use counterfactual thought experiments, and compare each positive case with a negative case, where alignment is very low. My negative cases are mutual recognition and state aid. The study reveals the purchase of DUCs in countries where the credibility of EU conditionality is problematic, such as Turkey. It demonstrates that different explanatory models may account for alignment in one policy area, depending on the dimension considered. Turkey's alignment has domestic and external implications. Domestically, although Turkey made important steps towards the idealtype of the EU-style regulatory state in both areas, the transfOlmation was largely reactive, and remained incomplete. Externally, Turkey's alignment scenario, as well as both policy areas' intrinsic characteristics, imply that Mediterranean partner countries' prospects for comprehensive regulatory convergence with the EU are weak. The study relies on primary and secondary sources, non-structured interviews, and extensive fieldwork.

The thesis deals with selected competition issues that occur within the dynamic and high-risk market of shipping, examining competition law issues in liner consortia and tramp pools through an EU Competition Law prism. These partial function joint ventures are the predominant form of alliances in the maritime sector. Liner trade is primarily organised in consortia, while pools are the most common form of tramp shipping alliance. The thesis' synthetic and analytic research incorporates the methodology and structure used in its competition law bibliography, while the legal analysis is informed with sources from microeconomics and maritime economics. The issues that are examined in relation to shipping include the four main areas of competition law: the relevant market, indicators of dominance, compliance of the alliance agreements with Article 101 TFEU and abusive conducts by dominant undertakings under Article 102 TFEU. The development of the above areas aims to demonstrate the interaction of sector particularities with competition law as a whole.

This thesis deals with the question of whether developing countries can effectively protect themselves against the effects of international cartels and what strategies they should develop in order to do so. While combating cartels has been one of the pillars of both domestic and international competition law policy, developing countries continue to suffer the brunt of the negative effects of international cartels. Because most developing countries have little to no functioning competition law policy, they are often the most likely targets of international cartels and therefore the most in need of assistance. This thesis will discuss both the qualitative and quantitative effects international cartels have on developing countries and the global market. This discussion will also include analysis of case studies conducted on the effects of these cartels. Another chapter will be devoted to the current legislation and strategies that have already been established to combat international cartels in general. The final chapters will cover what has already been done to help developing countries protect themselves and what the appropriate welfare benchmark should be when considering reform options. Global reform strategies discussed will include a discussion on whether forming a global, harmonised competition law agreement would be feasible and methods on how to foster greater cooperation between jurisdictions.

The public policy towards minimum resale price maintenance (‘RPM’), or vertical price fixing, namely the practice whereby a manufacturer stipulates a retail price floor below which its products are not to be resold, has traditionally been one of the most contentious antitrust issues on both sides of the Atlantic. Economic theory suggests that RPM is capable of producing ambivalent welfare consequences, thus obscuring the intellectual debate as to the optimal antitrust response to the practice. This normative uncertainty is best reflected in the divergent approach taken to RPM under the relevant laws of the United States and the European Union, arguably the world’s two most mature antitrust jurisdictions. In 2007, in its seminal Leegin judgment, the United States Supreme Court abolished the century-old per se ban on vertical price fixing. At the same time, under the European Commission’s recent Guidelines on Vertical Restraints price floors remain subject to a quasi-conclusive presumption of illegality. The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether a more consistent approach through the relaxation of the European Commission’s blanket prohibition on price floors would be feasible and, in effect, desirable. Based on insights from new institutional economics, it will be argued that RPM may on certain occasions be a substitute – however imperfect – for vertical integration, where a merger would be prohibitively costly for the parties, in which case the hierarchical form of organisation will have to be replaced by a hybrid governance structure. Under certain circumstances, a fixed retail profit margin may enhance the self-enforcing range of long-term partnerships governed by relational norms, as well as the manufacturer’s control over distribution by reducing substantially the transaction costs associated with monitoring dealer performance. At the same time, however, the analysis will take into account the various objections to the practice, most notably the horizontal collusion theory, in order to argue that the approach to RPM should in principle be cautious. The discussion will culminate in the proposal for a new, workable analytical framework for the substantive assessment of vertical price fixing under EU competition law, which will be based on a – genuinely – rebuttable presumption of anti-competitive object under Article 101(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

This thesis is concerned with the legal management of risk in oil and gas operations upon the United Kingdom Continental Shelf. The work focusses in particular upon geological risk, political risk and the regulatory and commercial risks pertaining to major accidents. Geological risk relates to the fact that generally, oil and gas is concealed within geological formations in the deep underground. Exploration activity is, as a result, both difficult and expensive. The thesis considers the extent to which the UK's chosen licensing system has struck an appropriate balance on who should bear the risk of failure of such operations. Political risk involves (on the one hand) the risks faced by investors in interacting with the state and (on the other) the risks faced by the state when designing its regulatory system. Investors are in a precarious position due to the high level of capital investment and long-term nature of oil and gas operations: they are therefore concerned to ensure stability and autonomy of operation. The state, on the other hand, is concerned that it is not taken advantage of by the (usually more knowledgeable) industry player when designing its regulatory system. The risk of major accident is reflected both in regulation of health, safety and the environment and in the contractual arrangements entered into by commercial entities in order to determine which party should bear ultimate liability in the event that an accident causes wide-spread loss. Having regard to the example of the law applied on the UK continental shelf, the thesis demonstrates that while risk can never be wholly removed from oil and gas operations, the law can be effectively used to mitigate risk and thereafter to facilitate he appropriate distribution of such residual levels of risk as remain.

This thesis explores, first, the evolvement and implementation of competition policy in China, where a competition culture was largely missing for decades; and second, the extent to which the government has resolved the inherent contradiction between preserving state control and promoting competition. The main aim is to evaluate how a competition law, which is essentially a product of capitalist free market economy, is being applied in China, a socialist country where predominant state-owned enterprises (SOEs) together with their owner – the Chinese government – generate the most distortions to market competition. To achieve this aim, the thesis studies, first, the ongoing economic transition and the historical development of Chinese competition policy; second, the prolonged drafting process of the Anti- Monopoly Law (AML); third, the substantive and institutional aspects of the enforcement of the AML, and the outstanding problems of the current competition system; and fourth, the role of the government in the interplay between competition policy and SOEs. The thesis also studies the European Union (EU) competition regime, which had substantial influence on the adoption of the AML and the design of China’s competition system. This discussion intends to use the experiences of the EU in modernising its competition system and in handling competition-related issues involving public enterprises to provide some meaningful answers to certain problems concerning the application of the AML and to possible reform of competition system in China.

This thesis addresses the consumer protection regime in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against damages posed by defective industrial products, unfair business practices and misleading advertising. Nowadays, unfair and deceptive practices such as the selling of defective or sub-standard goods, the charging of exorbitant prices, misrepresentation of the efficacy or usefulness of goods, and negligence as to safety standards have become rampant. Accordingly, it has become necessary to promote the development and refinement of statutory measures, even in developed countries, to make producers/traders more accountable to consumers. This thesis examines the legal grounds on which consumer protection stands within the newly enacted legal framework for consumer protection in the UAE. In addition, this thesis elaborates upon relevant regulations provided by UAE legislators as well as related laws in selected Arab countries. It further investigates the adequacy of administrative authorities’ measures in the UAE, and explains whether respective administrative rules are capable of compensating consumers for material and physical damages incurred. It also explores the inadequacies of the administration’s measures and rules, and highlights the importance of integration between administrative bodies in achieving a sufficient level of protection for consumers. The findings of this thesis are based on a detailed review of specific issues in consumer protection models in the Shari’a law and the United Kingdom (UK) model. Thus, it will refer to solutions devised by Islamic Shari’a law and the UK legal system to provide more comprehensive protection to consumers and strengthen their position in relation to that of traders. The study suggests that there is a need to amend the consumer protection in the UAE. It indicates a need for the unified, effective and meaningful implementation of consumer protection legal and administrative procedures in the UAE, and emphasizes that the non-governmental consumer protection association must be given a wider and legal role in supporting the governmental bodies. These findings may help in improving the current consumer protection regime in the UAE as well as reducing infringements committed by traders. This thesis concludes by making recommendations for drafting a comprehensive set of rules in the UAE in the hopes that such recommendations will contribute effectively toward the development of a consumer protection regime in the UAE.