Eleanor M. Fox

Courses

• Antitrust Law

  Antitrust has become a flashpoint for critics of big business. The antitrust laws are designed to maintain competitive markets, fostering a dynamic economy, controlling economic power, and serving consumers. The course focuses on the Sherman and Clayton Acts and their application to monopolizes, mergers, price fixing and other competitor agreements, and restrictive practices such as tying and exclusive dealing. Questions addressed include: Do the antitrust statutes seek only to advance efficiency and consumer welfare, or do they also have broader social and political goals? How does antitrust law advance innovation? How does it apply to the digital economy? Much of the course work involves applying analytical frameworks to determine whether an act or transaction is anti-competitive. The course also considers the institutional frameworks for enforcing the antitrust laws, including federal and state government enforcement, private enforcement and enforcement by nations around the world.

• Antitrust: International and Comparative Seminar

  Antitrust, or competition law, is the body of law that controls market power, eliminates business restraints, and helps make markets work. It has spread around the world and is a part of the law of almost all jurisdictions, from the United States to the European Union to China to sub-Saharan Africa. Although globalization and the Internet have produced many global competition problems, there is no international law of competition. There are, however, many global problems as well as many conceptual linkages (neighboring disciplines), such as trade and investment; and there are abutting societal issues such as environmental sustainability, poverty, inequality, and the distribution of resources. Jurisdictions handle these issues with much commonality but also with differences, which may stem from different cultures and legacies, different market configurations, and different goals. This seminar will provide a comparative study of the competition laws of a range of countries. The class will explore differences and commonalities, the problem of cross-border and global restraints, the extent and limits of extraterritoriality, the work done by nation-to-nation cooperation and by regionalism, how to conceptualize a global framework, how convergence works, and how countries do and should deal with the newer issues of inequality, the environment, and Big Tech. We will explore the institutions that can make these efforts work. Students are not required to have taken an antitrust/competition course in advance. Students will be required to write one or two one-page reaction papers in response to the readings for the particular class; and will be required to write a research paper of approximately 15-18 double-spaced pages. Students may opt to write a longer (substantial) paper for one extra credit.

• Colloquium on Globalization, Economic Development, and Markets

  Globalization impacts the world and especially impacts developing countries. It can pull people out of poverty, but it can also harm the poor and vulnerable. High technology, big data, and artificial intelligence can make lives better, but they also threaten exploitation and exclusion. This colloquium will be devoted to challenges of developing countries in the global environment. We will explore how markets may benefit and harm developing countries and how forces of globalization can be harnessed to work for economic development. Coverage will include studies of specific countries and regions, such as China and sub-Saharan Africa; and issue-specific problems such as poverty, inequality, corruption, environment, trade, and competition. In 9 of the 14 sessions, leading scholars will present papers. Students will be assigned to prepare a 1-2 page reaction paper for 2 of these sessions. Students must prepare a research paper appropriate for a 2-credit course, which is an Option B paper (5000 words) or may elect to prepare a longer paper for an additional credit. The longer paper is an Option A paper (10,000 words). Students will also be required to participate in a presentation based on themes from their research paper.

• Colloquium on Globalization, Economic Development, and Markets: Writing Credit

  Globalization has had a dramatic impact on the world and perhaps even more dramatically on developing countries. Issues of poverty and inequality persist. High technology, big data, and artificial intelligence hold the promise of making lives better, but they also pose threats of exploitation. This colloquium will be devoted to challenges of developing countries in the global environment. We will explore how markets may benefit and harm developing countries and how forces of globalization can be harnessed to work for economic development. Coverage will include studies of specific countries and regions, such as China and sub-Saharan Africa; and issue-specific problems such as poverty, inequality, corruption, environment, trade, competition, and institutions. In 9 of the 14 sessions, leading scholars will present papers. Students will be assigned to prepare a 1-2 page reaction paper for one or more of these sessions. Students must prepare a research paper appropriate for a 2-credit course, which is an Option B paper (5000 words) or may elect to prepare a longer paper for an additional credit. The longer paper is an Option A paper (10,000 words). Students will also be required to participate in a presentation based on themes from their research paper.

• European Union Law

  The European Economic Community started as an experiment of six nations in a community for peace after World War II. It evolved into an economic and in some measure social and political union of 28 nations, with constant and evolving challenges. The study of EU law is thus necessarily a study of governance and policy-making as well as law. The course begins with the constitutional and institutional framework of the European Union. It examines how the Union operates, including how legislative, judicial and executive powers are delineated. The course proceeds to examine the role of fundamental and human rights protection. It then covers the principles of free movement for goods, services and people, and specific internal market policies including competition policy and some of the following: corporate law, intellectual property law, equal rights for men and women, and trade and foreign affairs.

• International Competition Law: Globalization and Developing Countries Seminar

  In this seminar we consider globalization and its impacts on poverty and economic development. Students study the various subjects of antitrust (e.g. mergers, monopoly) and the extent to which evolving substantive-law “international standards” are or are not a good fit for developing countries. Also considered are extraterritoriality, conflicts, convergence, and efforts to develop a global regime. Each student is requested to follow a particular developing country and to consider the range of antitrust issues as applied in that country as well as the institutional design of that country's antitrust law. Countries studied usually include China, India, South Africa, a sub-Saharan African country, and Brazil or another South American country. A paper is required.

• Torts

  Civil liability for breach of duty causing harm to persons or property. Intentional and unintentional injury; fault and no-fault theories of liability; strict products liability; theories and analysis of causation.