Die Wirkungsgeschichte des Deutschen Kartellrechts vor 1914

Using the history of cartel law before 1914 as an example, Klaus Richter examines the possibility of using new institutional economics for research in legal history, since the methodological apparatus of the new institutional economics has already been applied successfully in many areas of the law in force. There are two theoretical approaches of new institutional economics which prove to be particularly suited to this plan: transaction cost economics and the theory on change in economic history developed by Douglass C. North. Transaction cost economics is able to explain the development of the institutional arrangements of cartels, whereas the new institutional economics can be used to describe the institutional environment of cartel formation. Using the Rhine-Westphalian coal syndicate as an example, the author explains the connections between both approaches.