Flavio Felice

ORDO AND EUROPEAN COMPETITION LAW

Abstract It is often “assumed,” even among well-informed lawyers and economists, that European competition law is an emulation of the US antitrust law because of American influence on European political and economic debates after the Second World War. However, such an assumption is disputable: in accordance with Professor Gerber, the competition law in Europe is an indigenous product based primarily on ideas developed in Germany by the so-called ordoliberal thought. In this respect, the article 102 TFEU may be considered a proof. The aims of this article are to furnish a critical examination of ordoliberal ideas of anticompetitive conducts and underline the relevance of ordoliberal thought for the development of the modern European competition law.

Rerum novarum and Its Principle on the Just Taxation of Immovable Properties

The paper consists of three parts. The first part focuses on Rerum novarum theoretical background, where property rights as natural rights of human person have a particular relevance together with those of labour. In particular, it appeared to re-affirm the sanctity of private property sought by the American bishops in the debates with Henry George and his supporters. The second part is devoted to the property rights in Rerum novarum (henceforth, RN) and on the controversy with it by Henry George who maintained that the main purpose of the sections on property rights as natural rights was that of combatting his thesis of taxing the rent of immovable property to replace the other taxes and especially those on workers. The third part examines, by and econometric research on the OCSE countries from 1965 to 2013, whether the economic effects of this taxation are favorable on GDP growth, as maintained by Henry George, with his theory of land rent or bad, as maintained by the encyclical. It results a general negative relation of this tax to GDP growth, supporting the Encyclical position.