On July 5 2000 the European Commission proposed the creation of a Community patent to give inventors the option of obtaining a single patent legally valid throughout the European Union. The Lisbon European Council cited the creation of a Community patent as an essential part of Europe's efforts...

A recent proposal for net neutrality regulation in the wireless industry suggests carriers should open their networks in particular ways. The proposal advocates creating standards that will make it easier for developers to write applications and for hardware firms to create devices that will...

Market definition is an essential ingredient to competitive and regulatory analysis. Yet, there is significant disparity regarding the definition of the relevant geographic market for high-capacity circuits, commonly referred to as Special Access services. Given the present debate over expanding...

This article studies the design of optimal mechanisms to regulate entry in natural oligopoly markets, assuming the regulator is unable to control the behavior of firms once they are in the market. We adapt the Clarke-Groves mechanism, characterize the optimal mechanism that maximizes the...

This paper compares and contrasts the processes used by the European, United Kingdom and Scottish parliaments in considering broadband policies, legislation, regulatory systems and outcomes, within a complex triple-tiered governance system. Broadband is of increasing importance due to the...

In order to encourage investment in telecommunication networks, governments have been encouraged to adopt a regulatory state model, with an independent regulatory authority that is subject to a system of appeals and to parliamentary oversight, providing different forms of accountability. The...

Price controls lead to misallocation of goods and encourage rent-seeking. The misallocation effect alone ensures that a price control always reduces consumer surplus in an otherwise-competitive market with convex demand if supply is more elastic than demand; or with log-convex demand (e.g.,...

This paper outlines a new proposal for correcting imbalances in training for the English Bar, by controlling access to the preliminary BVC (Bar Vocational Course) stage. The proposal, it is argued, should have additional strong beneficial effects on the composition and competitiveness of the...

This paper applies economic analysis and rights theory to the movement of governments to regulate personal behavior in the areas of alcohol, tobacco and food consumption, free speech, gun ownership, sex, the body as property, the right to work. Utilitarianism and rights theory are also discussed

The 'nanny state' has expanded in recent years. Politicians and bureaucrats have increasingly sought to restrict what individuals are permitted to do with their own bodies on their own property. Prohibitions is a corrective to the prevailing support for such authoritarianism. This collection...