Foreword

• Author: Jonathan I. Gleklen
• Pages: 3-6

iii

FOREWORD

When designing and writing a law, legislators are often faced with a choice: draft

the statute simply and broadly, or write a law in a detailed, highly specific manner

that tries to anticipate future circumstances. In crafting the federal antitrust laws,

Congress has chosen the former approach, stating, for example, that agreements “in

restraint of trade” are unlawful, and that actions to “monopolize” or “attempt to

monopolize” “any part” of interstate commerce are similarly prohibited. But what do

these words mean? How are they to be interpreted? The almost constitutionally broad

terms of the antitrust statutes are given meaning and context on ly by a thorough and

careful analysis of the vast number of court decisions, enforcement actions, agency

regulations, and guidelines that have accumulated over more than 130 years. The

mission of Antitrust Law Developments has been to synthesize these materials into a

coherent—and objective—statement of the governing legal rules for the benefit of

the bar, the judiciary, and students of the law.

This is the ninth edition of Antitrust Law Developments. The series originated in

1968 as a commentary by the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law

on the 1955 Report of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study the

Antitrust Laws. This commentary, Antitrust Developments 1955-68, updated the 1955

Report with case and agency developments through the intervening thirteen years.

The first volume to bear the title Antitrust Law Developments was published in 1975

under the leadership of Harvey M. Applebaum (Editorial Chair) and Irving Scher

(Vice Chair). Its purpose, as confirmed by the foreword, was “to state as objectively

as possible the current state of the law and developments in the antitrust field.”

The more recent editions of Antitrust Law Developments have shared that goal:

the second edition published in 1984 under the leadership of James R. Loftis, III

(Editorial Chair) and Michael L. Denger (Vice Chair); the third edition published in

1992 under the leadership of Willard K. Tom (Editorial Chair) and Abbott B. Lipsky,

Jr. (Vice Chair); the fourth edition published in 1997 under the leadership of Joseph

Angland (Editorial Chair) and Theodore Voorhees (Vice Chair); the fifth edition

published in 2002 under the leadership of Debra J. Pearlstein; the sixth edition

published in 2007 under the leadership of Jonathan M. Jacobson; the seventh edition

published in 2012 for which I served as Editorial Chair, and the eighth edition

published in 2017 under the leadership of Darren S. Tucker. Much of the extensive

research, writing, and analysis of those prior editions continues to be reflected in the

current edition of the treatise.

For this ninth edition, the Section is indebted to a highly qualified and dedicated

Editorial Board for its exhaustive work in editing, supervising, reviewing, and

drafting the treatise’s text and extensive footnotes. The Editorial Board consisted of

Ronan P. Harty, Chair, and board members Megan Browdie, Lisl J. Dunlop, Gregory

P. Luib, Niall E. Lynch, David L. Meyer, Sonia Kuester Pfaffenroth, and Margaret T.

Segall. The Editorial Board also received invaluable assistance from Nathan Kiratzis,