Randal C. Picker
Paul H. and Theo Leffmann Professor of Commercial Law; Senior Fellow, The Computation Institute of the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory
1111 East 60th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
phone: 773-702-0864
email: r-picker@uchicago.edu

Current Year Courses

• 42801 1 Antitrust Law
  This course provides an introduction to the law of antitrust. The course focuses first on the practices by which competing firms eliminate, or are alleged to eliminate, competition among themselves. The practices considered include formal cartels, price-fixing conspiracies, "conscious parallelism," trade association activities, resale price maintenance, and mergers to monopoly and other types of horizontal merger. The course then looks at the practices by which firms, either singly or in combination, exclude actual or potential competitors from their markets, by means of practices such as boycotts, tying arrangements, vertical integration, and price discrimination under the Robinson-Patman Act. Both price and non-price vertical restrictions are considered. The student's grade is based on a final examination.
  Autumn (3)
  
  
• 45801 1 Copyright
  This course explores the major areas of copyright law, with special emphasis on how modern technology might challenge traditional copyright principles. Topics include copyright duration, subject matter, and ownership; the rights and limitations of copyright holders, including the fair use doctrine; remedies for copyright infringement; and federal preemption of state law. The student's grade is based on a final examination.
  Spring (3) e
  
  
• 49901 28 Independent Research
  Second- and third-year students may earn course credit by independent research under the supervision of a member of the faculty. Such projects are arranged by consultation between the student and the particular member of the faculty in whose field the proposed topic falls.
  Autumn (3)
  
  
• 73501 1 Network Industries
  This course addresses state and federal regulation of price, quality, and entry, with an emphasis on the regulation of natural monopolies, cost-of-service rate-making, rate design, and the problem of partial competition within a regulated environment. While the scope of the course precludes a detailed investigation of any particular industry or system of regulation, particular attention is paid to electrical generation and transmission, the Internet, and telecommunications, with exposure to problems of the other network industries, such as transportation and consumer electronics. This course emphasizes the substantive law and regulated industries and pays scant attention to the procedural questions addressed in Administrative Law, which should be taken at some point, but which is not a prerequisite for this course. The student's grade is based on class participation and a final examination.
  Winter (3)
  
  
• 94702 1 Antitrust and Intellectual Property: Readings
  This seminar will look at a mixture of old and new materials on the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property, focusing on copyright and patent. Possible topics include webcasting, compulsory licensing, cable, and open access. Students write reaction papers to the readings. The student's grade is based on participation and the reaction papers. The reaction papers do not fulfill one of the substantial writing requirements.
  Spring (3)
  
  

Other courses taught include:

• Secured Transactions
• Antitrust Law
• Technology, Innovation And Society
• The Legal Infrastructure of Business
• Legal Infrastructure Of High-Technology Industries
• Workshop: Law And Economics
• Bankruptcy
• Bankruptcy Litigation
• Commercial Law
• Corporate Reorganizations
• Dispute Resolution
• Financial Regulation
• Game Theory
• Solutions to Collective Action Problems