Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL), HKU

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AIIFL Series

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Book Talk

Meet the Team

Book Talk

Reforming Antitrust

Consumer Law and Policy

Date & Time Thursday, 24 February 2022 10:00-11:00 am (HKT)
Duration 1:00
Location Online via ZOOM

Industrial consolidation, digital platforms, and changing political views have spurred debate about the interplay between public and private power in the United States and have created a bipartisan appetite for potential antitrust reform that would mark the most profound shift in US competition policy in the past half-century. While neo-Brandeisians call for a reawakening of antitrust in the form of a return to structuralism and a concomitant rejection of economic analysis founded on competitive effects, proponents of the status quo look on this state of affairs with alarm. Scrutinizing the latest evidence, Alan J. Devlin finds a middle ground. US antitrust laws warrant revision, he argues, but with far more nuance than current debates suggest. He offers a new vision of antitrust reform, achieved by refining our enforcement policies and jettisoning an unwarranted obsession with minimizing errors of economic analysis. More information about the book is available here .

About the Speaker

Alan J. Devlin

Alan J. Devlin, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP (Washington, D.C.)

Alan J. Devlin is a Partner at Latham & Watkins LLP representing clients in antitrust and competition matters, including merger clearance, antitrust litigation and appeals, and government investigations. A former Acting Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Bureau of Competition, Mr. Devlin focuses his practice on the intersection of intellectual property and competition law. Under the supervision of Judge Richard A. Posner, Mr. Devlin received a doctorate of jurisprudence (JSD), focusing in antitrust law and economics, from the University of Chicago. He presently teaches antitrust as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He has previously taught courses on law and economics, innovation policy, competition and intellectual property.