Far less attention is given to the even more rapid proliferation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and their overlap with obligations assumed by WTO Members under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). About 60 per cent of world foreign investment stocks are in services and,...

This working paper was presented at the Second Biennial Global Conference of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) 2010 in Barcelona, available on SSRN and as IILJ Emerging Scholars Paper 18 (2010). The final version is published uner the title 'Standards of Non-Discrimination in...

There are several mechanisms that countries recur to further integrate their economies. Such mechanisms take normally the form of international agreements, some to cooperate, others to promote and protect investments and most of them to liberalize trade. This paper reviews the international...

The following paper analyses possible legal and economic arguments supporting the inclusion of an investment chapter in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which is currently on the negotiating agenda. In particular, by looking at some of the former integration efforts and their...

This third contribution to the seco/WTI workshop on regionalism addresses the Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) that have and are shaping in the Western Hemisphere. First, it provides and introduction of the countries in the region, emphasising the diversities and proliferating RTAs, and offers...

The mushrooming of Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in recent years has led to a significant increase in the supply of attractive incentives for investors looking for opportunities abroad. SEZs are self-contained regimes, inextricably associated with investment promotion policies and domestic...

State enterprises (SEs) have been increasingly competing with private firms in international markets, in terms of both cross-border trade and FDI. Given both the potentially positive contribution internationally trading and investing SEs can make, as well as the concerns raised about their...

In most of the current literature, the spread of regionalism in international trade relations is discussed in terms of a rapidly rising number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Far less attention is given to the even more rapid proliferation of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and...