Abstract
Foreign investment is governed by thousands of international investment agreements (IIAs), many of which include investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions. Member states have played a prominent role in the evolution and shape of this decentralized global investment regime. The EU itself has become an actor in this regime since gaining competence in this area in 2009. This article examines the manners by which investment policies of the EU and its member states have evolved over time and their implications for the EU’s actorness. Using, first, the concept and metric of state regulatory space, we show that the EU is more enthusiastic than its member states about reforms, but that a lack of internal cohesiveness and a competitive external environment limit its actorness. Second, drawing on recent discussions on ISDS reforms, we highlight the increasing ability of the EU to speak up with one voice on global investment rules.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 749-768 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of European Integration |
| Volume | 44 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Authors’ names appear in alphabetical order and reflect equal co-authorship. For helpful comments and suggestions, we thank the members of the GLOBE consortium, the journal editors, and the anonymous referees. We thank Meori Elias for excellent research assistance. Research for this article was generously supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research & Innovation programme under Grant Agreement no. 822654.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords
- EU actorness
- International investment agreements
- Investor-State dispute settlement
- UNCITRAL
- state regulatory space