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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:521010 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Shahein, Heba |
| Publisher | London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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