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Course

Competition Law and Policy - LAWS8219

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Kensington Campus

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 3

Enrolment Requirements:

Academic Program must be either 9200, 9210, 5740, 9230, 9231 or 5231

Excluded: JURD7419, LEGT5531

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course is an in-depth examination of competition law. It examines Part IV of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA)(formerly the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and the parallel state provisions of the Competition Code, including the provisions dealing with criminal liability for cartel conduct in some detail. The course does not address consumer protection. A prior knowledge of economics is not essential for this course.


LLM Specialisations

Recommended Prior Knowledge

None

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:
  • Understand the theoretical background to competition law and the political and economic context of the Australian legislation
  • Understand the civil and criminal prohibitions contained in the Act
  • Understand the enforcement mechanisms including investigation powers and criminal and civil penalties
  • Know the remedies available to those affected by the illegal conduct

Main Topics

The course covers the following areas:
  • Competition policy, including history, objectives and current proposals for amendment
  • economic foundations including concepts of market, market power and competition
  • cartel conduct, including both criminal and civil liability and other non-criminal collusion provisions
  • misuse of market power
  • exclusive dealing and resale price maintenance
  • mergers
  • enforcement remedies and defences

Assessment

Class Participation 20%
Research Essay 6000 words 80%

Course Texts

Prescribed

  • Corones, Competition Law in Australia, 5th ed, Thomson, 2010.
  • You will also need a copy of the Competition and Consumer Act 2011. This legislation is published by CCH, and in annotated versions by Law Book Company or Butterworths. These books are available in the UNSW Bookshop. The Act is also available on AUSTLII.

Recommended
Refer to the Course Outline which will be provided prior to the start of the relevant semester.

Basser Steps

Study Levels

Undergraduate Study Postgraudate Study Postgraduate Research Study Non-Award Study

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