Investment Treaty Regulation Under the New ASEAN Charter Regime

Investment regulation in the ASEAN region has taken on different legal and policy contours since the passage of the ASEAN Charter in 2008. The ASEAN Charter transformed ASEAN into an official international legal organization, with a distinct legal personality, and capable of binding all ten Southeast Asian states under new regional treaty obligations. The predecessor regulatory framework for regional investment in ASEAN- the Framework Agreement on the ASEAN Investment Area (ASEAN AIA) and the ASEAN Investment Guarantee Agreement ASEAN (IGA) -is being successively replaced by new regional treaty regimes that reflect legal and policy adjustments now being undertaken by ASEAN in preparation for full economic integration by 2015. Three of these key agreements (the 2009 ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement; the 2010 ASEAN-China Investment Agreement; and the Investment Chapter of the 2009 ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement) contain innovations in treaty language that vest host States with more public policy control to protect the region's development priorities during the process of economic integration, particularly for balance of payments crises and economic crises. These innovations in the design of the new ASEAN investment agreements demonstrate ASEAN's cautious approach, reflective of the region's experiences with the 1998 Asian financial crises