Antitrust Syllabus

ANTITRUST LAW

 

Syllabus – Winter Quarter 2009

University of Chicago

 

Professor Daniel Crane

(dcrane@yu.edu)

 

 

 

Assigned Text

 

    Pitofsky, Goldschmid, Wood, Trade Regulation: Cases and Materials (5^th ed).

 

    2007 Supplement to Pitofsky, Goldschmid, Wood

 

Assigned Reading

 

1. The goals of antitrust policy; common law antecedents (pp. 1-12, 169-172, 23-35)
   
   
2. Statutory history of antitrust (pp. 35-51; handout on antitrust statutes)
   
   
3. Early development of legal doctrine (pp. 51-66)
   
   
4. Market power, market definition, and the Cellophane fallacy (pp. 128-165)
   
   
5. Market definition – Grinnell and the Merger Guidelines (pp. 165-168, 172-191; Section 1.0-1.322 of the Merger Guidelines, pp. 1034-1042)
   
   
6. Price-fixing and the per se rule (pp. 197-227)
   
   
7. Characterization of joint action (pp. 228-249)
   
   
8. The quick look approach (pp. 249-275)
   
   
9. Professional associations (pp. 276-296)
   
   
10. Horizontal non-price restraints (pp. 297-323)
    
    
11. Boycotts and refusals to deal (pp. 331-345; 354-370; 378-386)
    
    
12. Political "conspiracies" and Antitrust Federalism: The Noerr-Pennington doctrine (pp. 410-418; 443-449; pp. 450-455; 472-483)
    
    
13. Proving collusion (pp. 490-505; Twombly, Supplement; 526-532)
    
    
14. Facilitating practices (586-610; 551-584)
    
    
    
15. Resale price maintenance (pp. 620-645; Leegin (Supplement)
    
    
16. Vertical nonprice restraints (pp. 648-675)
    
    
17. Vertical refusals to deal (pp. 679-711)
    
    
18. Monopolization (pp. 722-750; Trinko (Supplement))
    
    
19. Microsoft (pp. 765-812)
    
    
20. Attempted monopolization (pp. 832-846)
    
    
21. Predatory pricing (pp. 847-870; Weyerhaeuser (Supplement)
    
    
22. Tying (pp. 876-903)
    
    
23. More tying and bundled discounts (pp. 903-924) (3M v. LePages (Supplement))
    
    
24. Exclusive dealing (pp. 935-953)
    
    
25. Merger caselaw (pp. 964-975; 978-990; 994-1110)
    
    

The Merger Guidelines (pp. 1034-1065)

Corporations Syllabus

 

Module	Subject	Readings for this Class
1.	Organization & Overview	Units 1 & 2 (pp. 2–13)   CB § 1.1.2 (pp. 3–5)
2.	Partnership Law : Formation & Third Parties I	Unit 3: The Formation of Partnerships (pp. 14–15)   Vohland v. Sweet (CB pp. 50–53)   Unit 4: Partnerships and Third Parties (pp. 16–25).
3.	Partnership Law: Third Parties II and Governance	National Biscuit Co. v. Stroud (pp. 59-60)   Unit 5: Partnership Governance (pp. 26–28)
4.	Partnership Law: Dissolution	Unit 6: Dissolution (pp. 26–36)   Page v. Page (71-73)
5.	Partnership Law: Dissociation Corporations: Introduction I	Unit 7: Dissociation (pp. 37–40)   Read everything in your casebook between the headlines "4.1. Introduction to the Corporate Form" on p. 83 and the headline "4.2.2 The Process of Incorporating Today" on p. 90.
6.	Corporations: Introduction II	Unit 8: Introduction to Corporate Law (pp. 41–45).   CB § 4.2.2 (pp. 90–91).   CB § 4.2.3 (p. 91–92)   CB § 4.2.4 (p. 92–93)   CB § 4.2.5 (p. 93)
7.	The Articles of Incorporation and the Bylaws	Unit 9: Incorporation (pp. 46–49)   Unit 10: Certificate of Incorporation and Bylaws (pp. 50–61)
8.	Limited Liability & Veil Piercing I	CB § 4.3 (pp. 94–97)   Unit 11: Veil Piercing (pp. 62–66)
9.	Veil Piercing II	Sea-Land-Services, Inc. v. The Pepper Source (CB pp. 151-55)   Kinney Shoe Corp. v. Polan (CB pp. 156-159)   Walkovszky v. Carlton (CB pp. 160-65)
10.	Formal Distribution Constraints	Unit 12 (pp. 67–81)
11.	The Role of the Board	Read everything in your casebook between the heading "4.5. Centralized Management" on p. 99 and the heading "4.5.2 Corporate Officers: Agents of the corporation on p. 107
12.	Electing and Removing Directors	Unit 13: Quorum and Majority Requirements (pp. 82–87)   CB § 7.2.1. (pp. 180–81)   Read everything in your casebook between the heading "§ 7.2.2. Removing Directors" on page 181 and the heading "Problem: The Unfirable CEO" on page 182.   Read the "Note on Staggered Boards" (CB pp. 183–84).   CB § 7.3 (pp. 184–85)
13.	Circular Ownership	Unit 14: Circular Ownership (pp. 88–89).   Speiser v. Baker (pp. 195–201)
14.	Vote Buying, Controlling Minority Structures, and Shareholder Inspection Right	CB § 7.7.3 (pp. 209–213)   Schreiber v. Carney (pp. 203–208)   Unit 15: The Right to Inspect Corporate Books and Records (pp. 90–92)   General Time Corp. v. Talley Industries, Inc. (pp. 193–94)
15.	Review	Unit 16: The Hypo that Just Does Not Seem To End (pp. 93–99)
16.	Shareholder Passivity	Unit 17: Shareholder Passivity (100–105)   CB § 7.9.2 (pp. 222-230).
17.	Duty of Care I	Unit 18: The Duty of Care (pp. 106–111)   Kamin v. American Express Co. (pp. 252–255)
18.	Duty of Care II	CB § 8.3 (pp. 245–252)   CB § 8.5 (pp. 260–63).
19.	Duty of Care III	Read everything between in your casebook between the heading "8.6. The Board's Duty to Monitor: Losses Caused by board

 

20.	Conflict of Interest Transactions I	Read everything in your casebook between the heading "Conflict Transactions…" on page 293 and the heading "9.2. Self Dealing Transactions" on page 300.   Unit 19: Self-Dealing Defined (pp. 112–114).
21.	Conflict of Interest Transactions II	Unit 20: Controlling Shareholders (pp. 115–116)   Sinclair Oil v. Levien (CB pp. 307-310)   Unit 21: Interested Transactions and Ratification (pp. 117–122)
22.	Conflict of Interest Transactions III	State ex Rel. Hayes Oyster Co. v. Keypoint Oyster Co. (CB pp. 302-305)   Cookies Food Product v. Lake Warehouse (CB pp. 312-317)   Cooke v. Oolie (pp. 311-312)
23.	Corporate Opportunity Doctrine	CB § 9.5 (pp. 351-356)   Unit 22: The Corporate Opportunity Doctrine (pp. 123–125)
24.	The Duty of Loyalty in Close Corporations	Donahue v. Rodd Electrotype Co. pp 357-362   Read the middle paragraph on page 364 of your casebook which begins with the words "Several states seem to follow" and ends with the words "less harmful to the minority shareholders."   Smith v. Atlantic Properties, Inc., pp. 364-368
25.	Derivative Suits I	Unit 23: Introduction to Derivative Suits (pp. 126–127)   Read everything in your casebook between the heading "Shareholder Lawsuits" on page 369 and the heading "10.2. Solving a Collective Action Problem…" on p. 373
26.	Derivative Suits II	Unit 24: Chancery Court Rule 23.1 (pp. 128–131)   Levine v. Smith (pp. 383–387) (including the note on Ross Perot on p. 387)   Rales v. Blasband (CB pp. 388-395)
27.	Derivative Suits III Review	Zapata Corp. v. Maldonado (CB pp. 396-401)