The Development Of Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Of Anticompetitive Law And The Settlement

In June 2005, our four biggest vitamin C companies were sued inAmerica of anticompetitive conduct, so the issue of extraterritorialjurisdiction of anticompetitive law was pushed to the summit. Why theconduct of our country's companies should be ruled by American'santicompetitive law? Does it has legal foundation? What kind of result andeffect does it bring about? How should other countries resist and prevent?All these are the causes for this essay. As America is not only the firstcountry to enact statutory anticompetitive law, but also the main country toestablish the institution of extraterritorial jurisdiction. The practices of itwere learnt by other countries as well as were resisted and criticized bythem, so it is necessary and important for us to research the practices ofAmerica.This essay includes five sections. Section 1 is about the summary ofextraterritorial jurisdiction of anticompetitive law. Firstly, author proposesthat the extraterritorial application of anticompetitive law is essencially theextraterritorial jurisdiction of it and then try to give a specific definition forit. After analysing the relevant views, author proposes that neither objectiveterritorial jurisdiction principle nor protective jurisdiction principle is thejust legal base for it. As the practices of extraterritorial jurisdiction haven'tbeen wildly established, it just the unilateral conduct of a country andwhether it effects as expected to is completely dependent on thecountercountry's attitude. Then author tries to find out the reasons of thecontradictory state that countries enact exterritorial jurisdiction as well asresist and criticize it. Finally anthor considers that the exterritorialjurisdiction is the objective trend and the best resolution for it is to convertunilateral to bilateral or multilateral, realizing the interest of relevantcountries adequately based on the mutual respect. Section 2 is generallyconcerned about the attitudes and pratices of America, as the principle ofexterritorial jurisdiction in America is established through the precedentsand acts, this section takes " Banana", "Alcoa", "Timberlane" and so on asclues to research the development while the attitudes of legal instituteswere also referred to. Conlutions are put forwards in the end: American'spractices sway from strict territorial jurisdiction principle to purely effectprinciple, its development mainly focuses on the degree of effect and theadvocation of international comity, it undergoes from multilateral period tounilateral period and then from unilateral period to multilateral period, theattitudes of courts and legal institutes in America don't reach the samecompletely. Section 3 is disscussed based on Section 2 and concerns aboutthe effect of America's practices on other countries, that is the resistanceand acceptance. As extraterritorrial jurisdiction has brought about manyconflicts and difficulties between countries, author puts forwards severalresolutions. Two key questions should be resolved here, the judgements ofextraterritorial jurisdiction are not the same in different countries and theintrusion of the countercountries' sovereign rights is resulted whenextraterritorrial jurisdiction. For the former, author propoes a unifiedinternational code should be enacted, but as different countries owndifferent interest in it, the purpose may be achieved after a long time, forthe latter, author proposes a self-restriction and cooperation of affectedcountries, and the pratices of Ameica and UN should be learnt from. Finally,author puts forwards some suggestions for China in Section 5 according tothe state of China.