Authority, Community and the Civil Law Commentary: An Example from German Competition Law

Abstract

People usually books about law in order to find out what is in them. Most books, in fact, can only be on this level, because their only role is as a source of information. Occasionally, however, a book plays a significant enough role within a legal system that it can also be at a second level. The commentary on German competition law edited by Ulrich Immenga and Ernst-Joachim Mestmacker (the ImmengalMestmacker commentary) is such a book. It is an exceptionally valuable source of information about German and, to a lesser extent, European Community competition law, but it has also been a powerful source of authority within the German competition law system since the first edition was published in 1981.1 To read it at a second level thus provides insights into the dynamics of that system. This essay explores the potential value of reading the work both as a source of information and as part of the competition law system.