Shahein, Michelle --- "The Political Economy of Competition Law Reform in New Jurisdictions" [2012] ELECD 827; in Whish, Richard; Townley, Christopher (eds), "New Competition Jurisdictions" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: New Competition Jurisdictions

Editor(s): Whish, Richard; Townley, Christopher

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9780857939517

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: The Political Economy of Competition Law Reform in New Jurisdictions

Author(s): Shahein, Michelle

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

3. The political economy of
competition law reform in new
jurisdictions
Michelle Chowdhury1

1. INTRODUCTION

For those in the international community charting the ascendancy of
competition law in developing and emerging economies, there has been
plenty of activity to report in recent years. Both India and China have
been forging ahead with legislative amendments and are well on the path
towards fully functioning competition regimes. And they are not alone.
Experts point to the ever growing list of jurisdictions now boasting com-
petition laws as a barometer of the proliferation of competition as the
accepted underlying principle of modern economic policy.
But as the wave of adoption has gathered momentum, concerns have
been raised over mixed experiences with implementation in early adopting
countries. As with many areas of economic regulation, it is now abundantly
clear that enactment of competition laws is a necessary but not a sufficient
condition for effective enforcement. Many `new' competition law jurisdic-
tions passed the relevant legislation 20 or more years ago,2 but few have
seen a substantial transformation of the competitive environment, and for
many the enforcement record has been disappointing.3


1 This chapter explores further the ideas initially developed in M. Chowdhury,

`A Diagnostic Tool for Reform: Improving the Effectiveness of Competition
Law Reform Projects' presented at the CUTS International Conference on
`Reviewing the Global Experience with Economic Regulation: A Forward Looking
Perspective', New Delhi, April 2011. The author would like to thank the partici-
pants of the CUTS conference for their ...