Forwood, Nicholas --- "Foreword" [2013] ELECD 1173; in Lianos, Ioannis; Geradin, Damien (eds), "Handbook on European Competition Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) xi

Book Title: Handbook on European Competition Law

Editor(s): Lianos, Ioannis; Geradin, Damien

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782546092

Section Title: Foreword

Author(s): Forwood, Nicholas

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Foreword


this is a major and highly relevant work. it is not a mere practitioners'
handbook, though every practitioner active in the field of competition law
should have a copy near at hand, and be familiar with its contents. nor
is it an academic treatise, even though the authors of each of its chapters
will lead the reader on a sure path through the sometimes tangled web of
academic literature and the ever-growing thickets of the case law of Eu
and national courts.
the two principal editors have brought together a distinguished panel
of contributors who clearly understand not just the detail of the particular
fields covered by their contributions, but also the wider context of com-
petition law. as the preface points out, competition law has come a long
way in the 50 years since EEC Council regulation 17 of 6 February 1962
came into force. For the first three decades, application of competition
law was dominated by two complementary tenets of belief ­ that allegedly
anti-competitive conduct could be accurately identified by an analysis that
was essentially legal in nature, and that the Commission's application of
article 85(3) (now article 101(3) tFEu) was characterised by an adminis-
trative assessment of detriment/benefit that was largely discretionary, and
subject to marginal control by the courts.
both these tenets were shaken at the end of the 1990s and early 2000s.
First, with Commissioner monti's wholehearted adoption of a `more
economic approach' both to legislation (for ...