Mediating between Public and Private Enforcement in Multi-Jurisdiction Settings

Associate Professor Chris Noonan
The University of Auckland, Faculty of Law

The fact that international cartels often operate in multi-jurisdiction settings will affect how we assess the appropriateness of the relationship between public and private proceedings. The impact that damages claims in one jurisdiction may have on leniency applications, and promises, in another jurisdiction, and vice-versa, is one aspect of the problem – and one which was considered by Laura Guttuso in her work. The system of sovereign nation states suggests that we cannot simply rely on concepts of global welfare or global justice principles to guide the reconciliation of parallel public and private enforcement efforts. This paper examines the challenges in developing a principled basis for reconciling public and private enforcement efforts in a multi-jurisdiction setting.