ABSTRACT
In many textbooks on international law published in the United Kingdom only limited reference to international economic law is made. Indeed, some dispute the existence of the topic as a distinct subject of study.2 One reason for this is, of course, that the subject is of comparatively recent origin; a second reason has been that the subject has been dominated by economists and lawyers have had less direct influence than they have had in developing subjects such as the law of the sea. Thirdly, in the United Kingdom there has tended to be a rather distant relationship3 between economics and law so that it cannot be said that there was a distinct corpus of competition law prior to 1948.4 At the end of the 19th century, the law of contract had developed some restrictions on contracts adjudged to be in restraint of trade5 and there was some legislation on customs and import controls but, unlike in Europe and the United States, there was no emerging competition law.
