The rise of large emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – or the ‘BRICS’ – increasingly dominates global energy demand. Whereas these countries experience a steady growth of their middle class and increase their population’s access to energy, other parts...

Private standards have increasingly become a contentious issue in the multilateral trading system. The ever increasing number of sector-specific standards developed by businesses, in particular in the food market, may have significant implications for developing countries in terms of market...

The present chapter assesses the possibility of improving the framework of negotiations on international investment agreements, in particular from the viewpoint of developing and least-developed capital-importing countries. The chapter analyses the viability of deliberations on a multilateral...

The High Representative of the European External Action Service (EEAS) is held to provide a review of the organisation and functioning of the EEAS by mid-2013. This short and user-friendly legal commentary on the 2010 Council Decision establishing the organisation and functioning of the EEAS is...

In recent years, several countries have moved to a more federal state structure. In particular in Europe, regional decision-making is on the rise. In order to evaluate these dynamics, this paper looks into the cases of Belgium and Switzerland. Both countries share a large number of...

This contribution seeks to provide clarity with respect to certain legal questions that have recently emerged in connection to the provisional application of the EU’s mixed trade and investment agreements. Thus, the EU may only provisionally apply those parts of a mixed agreement falling...

Despite being one of the “heavyweights” in international trade, finance and development, the European Union’s (EU) presence in the economic governance fora of the United Nations (UN) continues to be fraught with difficulties. Faced with the legal and political hurdles of multilateral...

This contribution looks into the relationship between national parliaments and the EU’s trade policy since the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon. The October 2016 saga of a sub-State parliament in the Belgian region of Wallonia rejecting to authorize the signature of the Comprehensive...

Commons and global public goods have become essential concepts in the current debate on governance. Many scholars still refer to their use in rational-choice theory, where these concepts relate to the classification of goods based on the objective criteria of (non-) excludability and (non-)...

1. Introduction : foreign direct investment and human development / Olivier De Schutter, Johan Swinnen and Jan Wouters -- 2. International investment law : the perpetual search for consensus / Jan Wouters, Sanderijn Duquet and Nicolas Hachez -- 3. Foreign direct investment as an engine for...