A Historical Investigation Of The Antitrust Cases In The Federal Courts Of The United States

The United States is one of the main countries in the world that adopt case law system, such that the interpretations of laws by judges are essential in American judicial process. Generally speaking, the dealing of cases by American judges is characterized by conformism and stare decisis. However, if we make an investigation of the entire legal history in the United States, we would find that the attitudes of judges toward identical or similar cases usually show fine or even radical differences. This is marked out most evidently in the anti-trust cases.The thesis selects several significant anti-trust cases in American legal history, mainly the ones that had been appealed to the Federal Supreme Court. In dealing with them, we try to compare the different opinions of courts toward anti-trust cases in different historical periods, and summarize the historical changes and its major reasons. The author believes that the judges'different interpretations of anti-trust laws reflect their different value pursuits of anti-trust laws; and among lots of factors affecting their value pursuits, the most fundamental reason lies in their general overview of the social, political, and economical situations as a whole at that time.Arranged by time line, the paper is composed of three parts.Part one deals with the period from the promulgation of the Sherman Act in 1890 to the end of World War II. This is the primary stage of the practice of anti-trust laws by federal courts, and the most important cases include United States v. E. C. Knight Co., Northern Securities Co. v. United States, Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, etc. In this period, the federal courts create several judicial principles, such as self-infraction principle, rational principle, which are all controversial. In our opinions, whatever principle the courts take, it is mere a tool of interpretation; the basic factor determining the result of any case is the social environment of social Darwinism in those days.Part two discusses the period from the end of World War II to the late 1960s. In the period, especially in the 1960s, the civil rights movement is on the upsurge in the United States. Thus the Supreme Court leading by Warren displays extremely strong populism position, which emphasizes equal competition rights of big and small enterprises in the markets. The most famous cases at this stage are United States v. Alcoa, Brown Shoe Co. v. United States.Part three copes with the period from 1970s to the end of the 20th century. In the 1970s, the United States confronts with a dramatically changed political and economical situation domestically and abroad. Accordingly, the American courts'viewpoints of anti-trust cases converted from equal competition to efficiency priority. The well-known cases at this stage are United States v. General Dynamics Co., United States v. Microsoft.