Antitrust and Professional Rules: A Framework for Analysis

This Article discusses whether antitrust laws can apply to rules of professional conduct and ethics. The author examines various economic theories relating to the regulation of professions, both by the government and through self-regulation. The Article discusses the viewpoints of scholars who are suspicious of private codes of ethics for professionals based on antitrust theory. It also explains the theory of economic capture, and examines the views of scholars who fear capture of the government by professional associations. The author sets out both anticompetitive and procompetitive theories of professional rules, and suggests a method of analysis for distinguishing anticompetitive rules from procompetitive ones. He concludes that the rules of professional associations are inviting antitrust targets