Historical Research Of The Uncertainty In Sherman Act

At the end of 19^th century, Sherman Antitrust Act came into being in the great development and change of Second Industrial Revolution in America.At that time,the organization of monopoly enterprises which Sherman Act referred to hadn't matured completely,and the realm of ideology was under the shift from the old to the new.In addition,the development of antitrust law in each state was not uniform.Given these conditions,it was impossible to work out a piece of clear and definite federal antitrust legislation.According to the history of legislation, Sherman Act didn't arise from the economic rationality but from the political pressure.The groups which appealed actively for antitrust legislation were unable to influence the lawmaking process.By contrast,the groups predominating in Congress didn't plan to take practical actions against big enterprises. For this reason,the phraseology in Sherman Act was ambiguous.However,the legislation was helpful for Congress to calm down conflicts and avoid more violent collision.Because of the uncertainty of legislation,the judicial construction in the Supreme Court became the key to the application of Sherman Act.However,the problem of the legislative uncertainty had been solved unsatisfactorily because the principles of construction in the Supreme Court were unsteady.The public dissatisfaction resulted in widespread movements for Sherman Act revision which were led by numerous communities.After several years of intense debate,the nonstatist regulatory policy of a market was accepted at last and was established in Federal Trade Committee Act and Clayton Act.To some extent, the difficulties of the uncertainty in Sherman Act were solved in the above acts. The uncertainty influenced the economy,politics and ideology significantly and permanently in America.The dissertation attempts to discuss the context,the appearance,the evolvement and the influence of the uncertainty in Sherman Act on the background of industrial organizational shift in America on the second half of 19^th century.The dissertation can be divided into 4 chapters. Chapter 1 discusses the context of the uncertainty in Sherman Act in the views of economy, ideology and law.Chapter 2 illustrates that the political factors resulted in the legislative uncertainty,involving the force advancing antitrust legislative movements,the intention of the groups predominating in Congress and the conflicts during the process of legislation.Chapter 3 expounds the appearance and evolvement of the uncertainty in application of Sherman Act and the revision movement.Chapter 4 summarizes the influence of the legislative uncertainty,involving the organizational form of consolidation,the execution of antitrust policy and the role of economic theories.