Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- List of Legislation
- List of Abbreviations
- The Changing Course of FDI: An Introduction
- Part I FDI and National Security: The Playing Field
- Part II The Traditional Approach: Ex Post Control
- Part III Towards Ex Ante Control: The Evolving Position
- Part IV Ex Ante Evaluation on National Security Grounds in Practice
- A Look to the Future
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
The Changing Course of FDI: An Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Cases
- List of Legislation
- List of Abbreviations
- The Changing Course of FDI: An Introduction
- Part I FDI and National Security: The Playing Field
- Part II The Traditional Approach: Ex Post Control
- Part III Towards Ex Ante Control: The Evolving Position
- Part IV Ex Ante Evaluation on National Security Grounds in Practice
- A Look to the Future
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
Summary
Few areas of law seem to excite as much controversy nowadays as the law of foreign investment. It is a fast-growing sector in which elements and ideas in the spheres of law, economics, political science, international relations and other related fields – increasingly environmental rights and human rights too – interact. It is also a sector in which approaches to the many existing problems often seem to be at once appropriate and contradictory. Furthermore, it is a sector subject to the growing scrutiny of governments, politicians, the media and citizens, in which a paradigm shift is currently taking place: increasingly, the promotion of investment and the protection of investors as the main – in some cases only – goal has to be balanced with the necessary recognition of the right of the state to promote and implement some public policies and interests.
Globalisation is an increasingly negative concept for many people in western countries, as is free trade, and this has a direct and growing impact on the approach of some national governments to foreign direct investment (FDI). The traditionally rather innocuous area of investment law is nowadays under pressure, not only in relation to inwards FDI but also as regards to outwards FDI. How ironic then that it appears that those developed countries that have supported free trade and free movement of investment since the restrictive 1970s, during which anti-FDI feelings ran high, are now leading a ‘backlash against FDI and trigger[ing] a roll-back of investor protection and liberalization.’
The amount of FDI worldwide has increased, while at the same time, its patterns are changing and many well-established paradigms of all kinds are starting to collapse. Developing countries and emerging economies are now investing heavily in developed countries, and some of the latter's major companies and areas of economic activity are now controlled by foreigners. The distinction between developed exporting capital countries and developing importing capital countries has been blurred. This fact, among others, has a direct impact on the assessment of free trade and free flow of FDI in many countries, especially developed ones.
The FDI global regime is based on bilateralism and indicates the changing shape of the economy and of international relations, with the appearance of new actors of all kinds. Some developed countries are starting to feel increasing disquiet about the FDI regime that they have helped construct over the decades.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2018