The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment Towards a Binding Investment Liberalisation

This book discusses the major features of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) and its likely impact on investment liberalisation in China, Europe’s largest trading partner. The principal aim of the book is to evaluate the progress of the investment liberalisation efforts pursued by the negotiators of the CAI.

Part I, “Geopolitical Origins and Negotiations of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment”, examines the interests, motivations, and expectations of the parties during the negotiation process and following the agreement in principle on the CAI. Part II, “Substantive Issues of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment”, considers specific focus areas that are critical for the mutual opening of the European and Chinese markets for foreign investors. Part III, “Dispute Resolution Mechanisms of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment”, reviews the applicability and effectiveness of the available dispute settlement and treaty enforcement mechanisms provided for in the CAI including investor-state dispute settlement, state-to-state dispute settlement, and non-adversarial methods.

The book offers a combination of theoretical perspectives that will be of interest to international economic law scholars and provides practical insights on how the CAI is likely to shape the investment landscape for European businesses in China.

Introduction: The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment and a Thorny Path towards Investment Liberalization.- Part I Geopolitical Origins and Negotiations of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- The Political Economy of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Balancing the European Union’s Economic Interests.- The Political Economy of China and the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- The European Union and China: In Search of Positioning and Exercising Normative Power in the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- Part II: EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Substantive Issues.- Pre-Entry National Treatment in EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment - An Open Sesame to the Chinese Market?.- The Disciplines of State-Owned Enterprises in the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Assessment, Implications and Directions.- The EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Disciplining Competition Law Enforcement in China?.- Intellectual Property Dimension of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: The EU Approach against Non-Market-Mediated International Technology Transfer.- Regulating Subsidies in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Implications for Global Subsidies Reform.- Disputing Personal Data in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- Part III: EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment: Procedural Issues.- The Future of Investor-State Dispute Settlement in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- A New Dish of “CAI” for State-to-State Dispute Settlement in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.- Never Fear to Negotiate: Options for Non-Adversarial Dispute Resolution in the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment.

Prof. Alexandr Svetlicinii is Associate Professor of Global Legal Studies at the University of Macau, Faculty of Law, where he also serves as Programme Coordinator of the Master of International Business Law in English Language. He has written extensively in the fields of competition law and international economic law. Prof. Svetlicinii served as Co-Director of Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) South-East Europe Chapter, Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) to the International Competition Network (ICN) and acted as a consultant for the European Commission and national governments on the matters of competition law enforcement.

Dr. I-Ju Chen is Lecturer in International Economic Law at the University of Exeter, School of Law. She holds a PhD in Law from the University of Birmingham and an LL.M from University College London. Prior to joining the University of Exeter, Dr. Chen researched and taught on international economic/commercial law at the School of Law, University of Birmingham. She specializes in WTO law, and her research interests also lie in international law, geopolitics and law and development. She has held visiting scholar positions at Durham University, Singapore Management University, and Doshisha University.