On Friday, October 14, the C. Boyden Gray Center and the Global Antitrust Institute (GAI) of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School hosted a full-day conference on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Constitution, and the future of antitrust policy. (See agenda below)
Watch all the sessions of this full-day conference on the GAI YouTube channel.
The conference featured a keynote address by Professor William E. Kovacic, director of GW Law’s Competition Law Center, and a series of panel discussions with former agency officials, leading litigators, and top scholars in the fields of antitrust and constitutional law examining the following issues:
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- The current state of antitrust policy
- The Roberts Court’s possible effect on the FTC’s ambitious policymaking agenda
- The FTC’s in-house adjudications
- The future of FTC independence, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent constitutional decisions
Agenda
Friday, October 14
All sessions held in the Mayflower’s East Room
8:15 – 8:55 a.m. Registration and Breakfast
8:55 – 9:00 a.m. Welcome
Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Panel 1: American Antitrust Law: Where Are We, and Where Are We Going?
Andrew I. Gavil, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law
Thomas Hazlett, H.H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics, Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, Clemson University
Bernard (Barry) A. Nigro Jr., Partner, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Moderator: Abbott “Tad” Lipsky, Jr., Director of the Competition Advocacy Program, Global Antitrust Institute; Adjunct Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
10:30 – 10:40 a.m. Break
10:40 am – 11:55 a.m. Panel 2: The FTC’s Independence After Seila Law v. CFPB
Svetlana S. Gans, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Jennifer Mascott, Assistant Professor of Law & Co-Executive Director, The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, Scalia Law School
Paul R. Verkuil, Former Chairman, Administrative Conference of the United States; Distinguished Senior Fellow, The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State
Moderator: The Honorable Steven G. Bradbury, Attorney; Former General Counsel, Department of Transportation
11:55 am – 1:20 p.m. Lunch & Keynote Speech
William E. Kovacic, Director, Competition Law Center; Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy; Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School; former Chairman, Federal Trade Commission
1:20 – 1:30 p.m. Break
1:30 – 2:45 p.m. Panel 3: The FTC vs. the Roberts Court: The Major Questions Doctrine, Rulemaking, and More
Jeffrey S. Lubbers, Professor of Practice in Administrative Law, Washington College of Law, American University
Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor, Columbia Law School
Eugene Scalia, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor (2019 – 2021)
Moderator: Chad Squitieri, Assistant Professor of Law, Columbus School
of Law, The Catholic University of America
2:45 – 2:55 p.m. Break
2:55 – 4:10 p.m. Panel 4: The FTC’s Litigation: In Court and In-House
Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice
Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Professor of Law, Nebraska College of Law, University of Nebraska – Lincoln; The Menard Director, Nebraska Governance and Technology Center; Co-Director, Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law Program
Howard Shelanski, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Moderator: Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
4:10 – 5:10 p.m. Reception, The Mayflower Chinese Room
5:10 p.m. Adjourn
PAPERS FOR THE CONFERENCE
Antitrust Rulemaking: The FTC’s Delegation Deficit
Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
Antitrust Reform in the Digital Era: A Skeptical Perspective
Robert W. Crandall, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute, Washington DC
Thomas W. Hazlett, Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics, Clemson University
Can the Federal Trade Commission Use Rulemaking to Change Antitrust Law?
Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Lyle T. Iverson Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School
Chevron and Administrative Antitrust, Redux
Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Professor of Law, Nebraska College of Law, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; The Mernard Director, Nebraska Governance and Technology Center; Co-Director, Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law Program
FTC Independence After Seila Law
Daniel A. Crane, Frederick Paul Furth, Sr. Professor of Law, University of Michigan
FURTHER READING
Administrative Relief and Private Rights of Action under the Antitrust Laws
Richard A. Epstein, The Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, The New York University School of Law; The Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, the Hoover Foundation; the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Lecturer, The University of Chicago
