Harvard Law School’s Einer Elhauge was presented the Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll’s Dan Small at the American Antitrust Institute’s Annual Conference on June 21. The Cohen Award was created through a trust established in honor of the late Jerry S. Cohen, an outstanding trial lawyer and antitrust writer. It is administered by the law firm he founded, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.
Elhauge’s winning article “Horizontal Shareholding,” 129 Harv. L. Rev. 1267 (2016), Elhauge argues that horizontal shareholding can help explain fundamental economic puzzles including executive compensation methods, reluctance of firms to invest, and the rise of income inequality. He also argues that current antitrust law can tackle this problem by challenging stock acquisitions that create anticompetitive horizontal shareholdings in concentrated markets.
The award is given each year to the best antitrust writing during the prior year that is consistent with the following standards established by the Board of Trustees of the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund. To be considered eligible and selected for the Award, submissions should reflect a concern for principles of economic justice; the dispersal of economic power; and the maintenance of effective limitations upon economic power or the federal statutes designed to protect society from various forms of anticompetitive activity. Submissions should reflect an awareness of the human and social impacts of economic institutions upon individuals, small businesses and other institutions necessary to the maintenance of a just and humane society—the values and concerns that Jerry S. Cohen dedicated his life and work to fostering. Submissions may address substantive, procedural or evidentiary matters that reflect these values and concerns.
The award selection committee has also conferred six category awards, as follows:
- Best Antitrust Labor Exemption Article: Sanjukta M. Paul, “The Enduring Ambiguities of Antitrust Liability for Worker Collective Action,” 47 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 969 (2016)
- Best Antitrust and Small Business Article: Stacy Mitchell, “The View from the Shop – Antitrust and the Decline of America’s Independent Businesses,” 61 Antitrust Bulletin 498 (2016)
- Best Antitrust and Buyer Power Article: Clayton J. Masterman, “The Customer Is Not Always Right: Balancing Worker and Customer Welfare in Antitrust Law,” 69 Vand. L. Rev. 1387 (2016)
- Best Antitrust and Intellectual Property Article: Thomas K. Cheng, “Antitrust Treatment of the No Challenge Clause,” 5 N.Y.U. J. of Intell. Prop. & Ent. Law 437 (2016)
- Best Antitrust and Rule of Reason Analysis Article: C. Scott Hemphill, “Less Restrictive Alternatives in Antitrust Law,” 116 Colum. L. Rev. 927 (2016)
- Best Antitrust and Platform Markets Article: Michal S. Gal and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, “The Hidden Costs of Free Goods: Implications for Antitrust Enforcement,” 80 Antitrust L. J. 521 (2016)
The award committee consisted of Zachary Caplan, Warren Grimes, John Kirkwood, Robert Lande, Christopher Leslie, Roger Noll, and Dan Small.
