Freedom's Brand-New Champion.(Brief Article)

Think leadership in free markets, think United States. But a strong new force has emerged in Europe: the courts of the nine-year old European Union. On Tuesday the EU Court of Justice struck down "golden" shares, a widespread European device for maintaining political control of large companies. As European governments have privatized state-owned enterprises in recent years, they have often reserved a minority of shares for themselves. If a foreign company tried to buy or merge with a domestic company, governments could use the golden shares as legal ground to veto the deal. But the Court of Justice has now ruled that the free movement of capital into and within the EU must be permitted, except where national defense is involved. No other exceptions--ergo, no loopholes for golden shares.

Thursday brought another step forward: the European Court of First Instance declared that the Competition Commission of the EU, headed by Mario Monti, was wrong in vetoing a merger between British travel- agency giants MyTravel Group and First Choice. Until now Monti has been able to veto almost any merger he thought might create "dominance." But no ...