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The purpose of this document is to assess two questions that have a positive and normative nature respectively: 1) What incentives does the legal and institutional framework of the European Community (EC) and the United States (Federal level) provide to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in regards to the use of expert economic testimonies? 2) What legal and social norms could provide appropriate incentives to the different agents involved in antitrust proceedings in order to align the use of expert economic testimonies with antitrust enforcement goals? The research questions are assessed from a comparative law and economics approach. The law and economics approach is based upon the Asymmetric Information Theory and Principal-Agent Theory. The document contains five conclusions that may be summarized in the following statement: regarding expert economic testimonies, an antitrust enforcement system must aim at the minimization of its costs through the mitigation of the consequences of asymmetric information between the adjudicator and the expert. A cost-benefit analysis of the use of expert witnesses must take into account the incentives produced by the interaction among the different regulatory and non-regulatory features of the antitrust enforcement system.

Spanish Abstract: La normas sobre control de concentraciones en la nueva Ley de Competencia Colombiana (Ley 1340) fue demandadas por inconstitucionalidad en el ano 2009. La Corte Constitucional inicio un proceso de revision constitucional de la ley y el CEDEC participo en el proceso judicial mediante un escrito de intervencion ciudadana. El escrito de intervencion apoya la constitucionalidad de las normas excepto por el articulo 22 que impone una contribucion de seguimiento en favor de la autoridad de competencia en los casos en los cuales la concentracion es condicionada. El escrito incluye una seccion que presenta una breve estudio comparado sobre las leyes de control de concentraciones.English Abstract: The constitutionality of the rules on merger control contained in the new Colombian Competition Law (Law 1340) was challenged in 2009. The Constitutional Court initiated a judicial review of the law and the CEDEC participated in the constitutional process by submitting an Amicus Curiae Brief. The Amicus Brief supports the constitutionality of the merger control rules but for article 22 of the law that established a mandatory contribution in favor of the competition authority in cases where remedies were imposed. The Brief includes a section that presents a brief comparative law study on merger control laws.

This amicus brief was submitted on behalf of the Centro de Estudios de Derecho de la Competencia (CEDEC) in support of the articles of the Colombian competition law that allow the termination of an investigation through the offering of compromises. The Colombian Constitutional Court will be considering the question whether article 4 (numeral 12) and article 52 of the Decree 2153 of 1992 are unconstitutional. The brief describes the termination of proceedings through the acceptance of compromises in several jurisdictions, distinguishes the institution from leniency programs and argues for its constitutionality in the light of the Colombian 1991 Constitution.

The objective of the document, written in Spanish, is to present the current competition laws in Latin America and Caribbean. Recent reforms and bills that are discussed by several Congresses of the region are also referenced. The legal background of competition laws in Latin America and Caribbean is divided in three periods of time, taking into account their issuance and effective enforcement. Due to a detailed reference to the web pages of the competition authorities, this document constitutes a guide for a first hand approach to competition law in seventeen countries of Latin America and Caribbean; likewise, the references to the legislative's web pages permit the monitoring of the amendments or the new bills that are discussed in the each national congress.

Competition policies were established in Panama, for the first time, through the enactment of the Law 29 of 1996 that constitutes their general consumer protection and competition regime. After the enactment of the Law 29 there has been an important regulatory development and issuance of Guidelines that instruct the citizens regarding the compliance of the competition rules. This document, written in Spanish, presents the structure of the competition regime in Panama and the content of the recent reforms, especially the Decree Law No. 9 of 2006, current since May 2 of 2006. Additionally, the features of the enforcement of the statutes are explained in the context of the performance of the antitrust authorities.