“Cartels by Another Name: Should Licensed Occupations Face Antitrust Scrutiny?” (162 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1093, 2014), an article co-authored by Vanderbilt Law professor Rebecca Haw Allensworth with Aaron Edlin, is the co-winner of the 2015 Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund Writing Award.
The article for which Allensworth and Edlin received the prize argues that state licensing boards comprised of active market participants should not receive immunity from the antitrust laws unless the state “actively supervises” their activity.
Established in memory of Jerry S. Cohen, a former partner of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll in Washington, D.C., the award is given each year to the authors of the best antitrust writing during the prior year. To qualify for the award, publications must 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; seek to protect society from various forms of anticompetitive activity; and address the maintenance of a just and humane society—values and concerns Jerry S. Cohen dedicated his life and work to fostering. This is the thirteenth year that the award has been given.
Allensworth and Edlin will receive the Cohen Award, which includes a cash prize, at a presentation during the sixteenth annual conference of the American Antitrust Institute, held at the National Press Club June 18. The other winning publication is a book, The Microsoft Antitrust Case: Competition Policy for the Twenty-first Century, by Andrew Gavil and Harry First.
“Cartels by Another Name” was also cited in the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC delivered by Justice Anthony Kennedy, which was issued February 25, 2015.
In their article, Allensworth and Edlin show the economic harm of excessive licensing and argue that most state boards should be subject to antitrust suits.