Title: International Bar Association's Global Competition Forum (GCF)

Source/Sponsoring Agency: International Bar Association

URL: http://www.globalcompetitionforum.org/

Date Checked: 10/21/2009      Status: Active

Date Annotated: 10/21/2009

Topics: Foreign Law; International Law

Other keywords: Competition policy

Contents: The Global Competition Forum website was created by the International Bar Association in 1991 to facilitate their work with the International Competition Network (http://www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/). The site’s function is to further international discourse by providing a place to collect, develop, and distribute information regarding competition policy. In so doing, the Global Forum hopes to “act as a catalyst for change” and ultimately harmonize conflicting legal systems. From the site’s homepage, visitors may click on a geographic region to be connected to an alphabetical list of that region’s countries. Each country’s name serves as a link to a current, well-organized source of that country’s competition laws. To the extent that information is available, each country’s outline includes an overview, legislation, selected cases, guidelines, forms, treaties, news reports, Global Forum annual reports, press releases, and links to other competition authority websites. Each category in turn provides links to PDF copies of documents, in English, and frequently, in the vernacular. If information is not available regarding a particular country’s competition laws, then the site will indicate that this so; however, other relevant information, such as treaties, will still be provided. The site provides extensive access to not only the text of laws, but also commentary by world-renowned experts in all facets of competition law, together with links to other competition authorities and interested international organizations. A tab at the top of the homepage also provides access to copies of the papers, reports, and speeches of the International Competition Network itself. The site is well organized and logically arranged, but it would do well to add a search engine to provide an additional method of accessing its wealth of resources.

Author of Annotation: A. Emerson