The Interaction Between Competition Law and Corporate Governance
Opening the 'Black Box'

17th Oct 2024 by UName-456522

MEETING AT THE CROSSROADS: THE LINKAGES BETWEEN CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND COMPETITION LAW An appreciation by Elizabeth Robson Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers and Reviews Editor, “The Barrister” Here’s an impressive work of legal scholarship for you, especially if you’re a lawyer — and certainly an academic — involved with corporate law. If so, the book will almost undoubtedly enrich your understanding and generally broaden your perspectives within this admittedly vast area of the law. Published recently by Cambridge University Press, ‘The Interaction Between Competition Law and Corporate Governance’ has been pinpointed as ‘the first systematic account’ of the ways and means by which competition law and corporate governance meet at the crossroads and actually interact, despite the fact that each discipline pursues different — and usually opposing objectives. The two entities, as author Florence Thepot points out — ‘constitute separate areas of academic enquiry across jurisdictions,’ as most commonly, they are often on opposites sides of the fence. Competition law, she asserts, is ‘oriented towards the defence of consumers’ interests, while 'the rules of corporate governance are designed to protect the interests of shareholders.’ While some will agree with this in its entirety, others may not. But it is unarguable that Thepot has constructed within this monograph, a convincing and minutely analytical argument to support this stance. Supported by an incredible amount of research, (as evidenced by the impressive twenty-page bibliography), this thesis has taken the author on a long and obviously enlightening journey, involving London (UCL), Washington D.C. (Georgetown), Strasbourg (BETA) and Munich (Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition) — plus the stimulating environment of the School of Law at the venerable Glasgow University — one of Scotland’s oldest — where the author now lectures. The book postulates several issues, affirming for example, that ‘the firm’, i.e. the corporate entity, should not manifest itself as a ‘black box’ to competition law. Attention here is focused on the ‘internal drivers of collusive behaviour’ within the firm and the proposition — to cite another example — that there should be ‘a unified approach to cartel enforcement.’ ‘This book,’ as the author reminds us, ‘is the first to discuss the issue of structural links from a systematic corporate governance and corporate law perspective’ alluding thereby, to the need to implement specific and possibly overdue reforms. Over the decades, there has been a lot of important scholarship on corporate social responsibility. This book is therefore to be commended for its up-to-the-minute and carefully researched approach to this and other key areas of concern within the broad arena of corporation law. This book reflects the law as at 31st May 2018 and was published on 14th February 2019.

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