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Abstract: Restrictive business practices are a natural result of commercial enterprise. Such activities on the part of merchants and producers may work unfairly against the interests of their competitors, the consuming public, or society as a whole. To combat this, governments have intervened to regulate and prevent such practices. While there has been a strong trend toward the liberalization of international commerce through agreement among nations for the removal of state-imposed barriers and restraints, private barriers and restraints have passed largely unscathed through this trend. While the prospects for an international regime were positive, today they are not discussed so often nor so optimistically as they once were. This article presents a short historical review of the waxing and waning of efforts for an international system of controls, demonstrating that the problem is neither new nor likely to go away. It also touches on current thought in official international organizations which remains preoccupied with finding international answers to an international question. This article concludes that it is a propitious time to direct attention back to the possibility of international institutions for the control of international restrictive business practices. It recommends simply a non-binding procedure which would give more formality and substance to a current trend toward informal consultation.
Keywords: International Law, Free Trade,
International Trade Controls
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