Trade And Investment Adjudication Involving Silk Road Projects

This contribution discusses legal methodology problems of multilevel trade and investment regulation (section I) and explores related problems of adjudication involving investment projects in the context of China's 2013 'One Belt, One Road' (OBOR) initiative involving more than 65 countries (section II). The very limited number of investor-state arbitration proceedings initiated so far by foreign companies against China - or by Chinese companies against foreign host states - suggests that alternative dispute resolution may become one of the important 'legal innovations' of China's OBOR cooperation. Yet, also involvement of third parties as 'mediators' or 'conciliators' in dispute settlement proceedings raises questions of 'justice' and of legal methodology that are easier to resolve by embedding OBOR regulations into multilateral trade, investment and UN law.

This book is a systematic analysis of the trade interconnectivity, logistics, urbanization, and economic development among countries along the Silk Road. The prospects for cooperation amongst countries on the Silk Road are clarified in a book which will interest scholars of geopolitics, of economic growth, and of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Transforming World Trade and Investment Law for Sustainable Development explains why the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda for "Transforming our World"—aimed at realizing universal human rights and the17 agreed sustainable development goals (SDGs)—requires transforming the UN and WTO legal systems, as well as international investment law and adjudication. UN and WTO law protect regulatory competition between diverse neo-liberal, state-capitalist, European ordo-liberal, and developing countries' conceptions of multilevel trade and investment regulation. However, geopolitical rivalries and trade wars increasingly undermine transnational rule of law and effective regulation of market failures, governance, and constitutional failures. Protecting the WTO legal and dispute settlement system remains essential for SDGs such as climate change mitigation measures and access to medical supplies and vaccines in global health pandemics. Investment law and adjudication must better reconcile governmental duties to protect human rights and decarbonize economies with the property rights of foreign investors. The constitutional, human rights, and environmental litigation in Europe enhances the legal accountability of democratic governments for protecting sustainable development. However, European economic constitutionalism has been rejected by neoliberalism, China's authoritarian state-capitalism, and many developing countries' governments. The more that regional economic orders (like the China-led Belt and Road networks) reveal heterogeneity and power politics block UN and WTO reforms, the more the US-led neoliberal world order risks disintegrating. UN and WTO law must promote private-public network governance and civil society participation in order to stabilize and de-politicize multilevel governance that protects SDGs and global public goods.

The first comprehensive study of China's role in international dispute resolution in the context of the 'Belt and Road Initiative'.

This book analyzes the dispute settlement mechanisms under the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), including the already established mechanisms for general state-to-state dispute settlement and the Mechanism to Address Differences for investment and sustainable development issues. When China and the EU, two of the biggest players in international investment, announced the completion of the China-European Union CAI negotiations, the dispute settlement system remained incomplete. While they reached an agreement on state-to-state dispute settlement, the controversial investor-state dispute settlement is subject to ongoing negotiations. This book explores the possible procedural design of investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms under the EU-China CAI, including potential proposals, issues, and solutions. In addition, this work analyzes the separation, connection, and combination of state-to-state and investor-state dispute settlement, all with a mind to ensuring the function and operation of diverse mechanisms and establishing a comprehensive system for successful investment dispute settlement. Focusing on the complete dispute settlement system under the EU-China CAI, this book will be a valuable resource for students, academics, and policymakers working in the areas of international dispute resolution, international investment law, international economic law, and comparative law.

This book explores how State capitalism affects and reshapes international investment law. It sheds new light on the various ways States actively influence business and commercial activity globally by using sovereign investors such as state-owned enterprises and sovereign wealth funds or pension funds. With a diverse group of contributors from a broad range of countries, the book offers a fresh and timely look into the fundamentals of State capitalism, focusing in particular on its actors and processes, the contextual elements that surround it, and the new political economy that comes with it. The book is essential reading for researchers, regulators, policy makers, and practitioners interested in the different ways State capitalism challenges and changes international investment law. As geopolitical considerations increasingly affect global economic activity, delving into the intricacies of State capitalism has never been more timely.

Assuming an international perspective, Chinese Tourist Outbound Behaviour presents an insightful exploration of the evolution of China’s tourism market, explores Chinese tourists’ behaviour, and considers how the country’s tourism landscape will expand in the future. Featuring 16 chapters compiled and written by industry experts representing 11 countries, this collection offers a vivid profile of Chinese tourists and the characteristics distinguishing them from other market segments. This book coincides with the growing interest in Chinese tourism and tourist behaviour as the top market in the world in terms of tourism spending and arrival numbers, presenting an overview of Chinese tourist segments and travel-related concerns to paint a clear picture of the market’s status. Chapters address the future of Chinese tourism, providing industry stakeholders an up-to-date view on this valuable market along with suggestions to best harness the market’s power. Providing an up-to-date exploration of numerous contemporary issues, this book will be valuable to a wide audience, including advanced students in tourism, hospitality and leisure and recreation studies and stakeholders, authorities, establishments and employees within the tourism industry. This book offers readers greater knowledge about the past, present and future of the Chinese outbound tourism market.

This handbook offers readers various perspectives on globalization and multilateralism with Chinese characteristics. Its originality is derived from the hybrid approaches the handbook takes, where chapters provide complementary, intertwined, and multi-level analysis on the topic. Based on contributions of scholars and practitioners from a number of countries, the handbook helps readers to comprehend ongoing debates on the Belt and Road Initiative and global governance, within a shifting balance of world power, characterized by competing views between Western and Chinese norms, standards, values, and narratives. Split into three Parts, and consisting of 46 chapters, the handbook views globalization as comprehensive concept that benefits from the contributions of various disciplines such as geography, geo-economics, political science and international relations. In producing one of the most ambitious and updated outputs on the topic, the handbook as a whole seeks to discuss what globalization with Chinese characteristics looks like, and the role of the Belt and Road Initiative in this process.

Written by eminent international judges, scholars and practitioners, this book offers a timely study of China's role in international dispute resolution in the context of the construction of the 'Belt and Road Initiative' (BRI). It provides in-depth analysis of the law and practice in the fields of international trade, commerce, investment and international law of the sea, as they relate to the BRI construction. It is the first comprehensive assessment of China's policy and practice in international dispute resolution, in general and in individual fields, in the context of the BRI construction. This book will be an indispensable reading for scholars and practitioners with interest in China and international dispute resolution. It also constitutes an invaluable reference for anyone interested in the changing international law and order, in which China is playing an increasingly significant role, particularly through the BRI construction.

The first comprehensive and in-depth economic and regulatory analysis of a possible Free Trade Area (FTA) between China and the EU.