Antitrust, the Rule of Reason, and Democracy: A Letter from Justice William O. Douglas

Abstract

This article is a fictional letter from Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas about the relationship between democratic values and antitrust law. It responds to William Curran's fictional dialogue between Senator John Sherman and philosopher John Rawls. It discusses the importance of the anarcho-socialist movement of the late nineteenth century to the adoption of the Sherman Act, the historical and logical inevitability of adoption of a rule of reason in antitrust law, the relevance of economic efficiency to the rule of reason, and the relationship between competition and the promotion of democratic ideals.

Keywords: William Sherman, John Rawls, William O. Douglas, antitrust law, rule of reason, competition policy, anarchism, economic efficiency