US antitrust law was once the shining star of competition law; the model for the world. But, as laissez faire interpretations took deeper and deeper hold, especially with regard to single firm conduct, US antitrust law began to protect incumbents, not competition, and the star lost its glow....

The purpose of this paper is to describe the institutions of antitrust enforcement in the United States and to test those institutions against a set of norms used to assess the operations of administrative agencies. The paper is part of a broader project studying global administrative agencies....