The Competition Law in South Asia: A Policy of Diffusion and Transfer is the first book of its kind in Pakistan on this subject. It is written by Dr. Amber Darr, an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a Professor of Law in the UK. The book was published by Cambridge University Press in 2023. It is based on the author’s PhD thesis and reflects extensive research covering all SAARC countries, with a particular focus on the two major states of the region, Pakistan and India.

Amber Dar’s Competition Law in South Asia: Policy Diffusion and Transfer is an ambitious and meticulously researched examination of how modern competition laws have evolved across South Asian countries over the past two decades. The book situates competition law not merely as a set of legal rules, but as a dynamic policy that traverses borders through processes of diffusion and transfer, and interacts with local political, legal, and institutional environments. Dar’s central argument is that while many South Asian states have adopted competition legislation, the success or failure of these laws depends on how they are embedded within indigenous legal and political institutions, not simply on their textual similarity to Western models.

Dar begins by outlining a theoretical framework that combines comparative law, policy diffusion literature, and institutional economics to explain how the study of “transplants” in competition law should be approached. She shows that imported legal ideas only become effective when they are understood, applied, and integrated into a country’s own legal system, rather than imposed in isolation. This framing sets the stage for detailed comparative analyses of each country’s journey along the deliberation–adoption–implementation continuum.

At the heart of the book are the in-depth case studies of India and Pakistan, the two South Asian countries that have most actively adopted and attempted to enforce modern competition law. India enacted the Competition Act, 2002, replacing its older Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices framework, and established........

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