Writing the History of Competition Law in the European Union, 1945-2003

Completed Research Project

This project was brought to a close with the publication of a volume coedited together with Brian Shaev (University of Leiden): The Development of European Competition Policy. Social-democracy and Regulation (Routledge, 2024). It includes 13 articles dealing with one century of competition policy and law in Europe since 1914. It considers a central issue of our time: the relationship between the political and economic objectives of political parties in democratic countries and the legal framework of market economies. The contributions examine social-democratic policies on cartels, market concentration and competition in different European countries, spanning a period of 100 years (specifically the interwar period, the initial postwar period, the 1960s and 1970s, the 1980s and 1990s, and the 2000s). This volume challenges the dominant belief that the EU’s economic system and competition policy were mainly influenced by neoliberal economic thinking, instead showing that Keynesian and social-democratic positions played a major role in the emergence of EU competition law.  

The Development of European Competition Policy
Social Democracy and Regulation