Reconciling regionalism and multilateralism is a challenge common to all branches of global economic governance. While the Bretton Woods/GATT (WTO) institutions, decades-old multilateral framework for global economic governance, are facing serious challenges to their effectiveness, regional framework are emerging as complementary or alternative means of global economic governance. The real challenge is how to reconcile multilateralism and regionalism in global economic governance. This book tackles this problem by analysing issues of multilateral/regional conciliation and coordination in global economic governance, focusing on Asia. Chapters of the book deal with challenges of multilateralism and regionalism in three fields of global economic governance, namely, global monetary/financial governance, global trade governance, and global investment governance. The major regional focus is on Asia, though some chapters deal with regionalism in Europe and North America. Topics include Asian Monetary Fund and Asian financial architecture, open accession provisions of regional trade agreements, and APEC’s role in multilateral investment rules. As a whole, the book elucidates the contemporary reach of Asian regionalism in global economic governance, and shows the neat balance between regionalism and multilateralism in global economic governance. It is of particular use to the students and practitioners of international economic law, international political economy, international finance and international economics, both with and without Asian focus.

It is now more than fifty years since the United Nations system and the Bretton Woods institutions were created. The world has changed since then, and so have its governance needs in terms of institutions and rules. It is time to think about the contours of institutions and governance thatwould meet the needs of the world economy, and also polity, at least for the first quarter of the twenty-first century. This book is the first to examine the subject in depth.The study is divided into four parts. The first situates the subject in the wider context of globalization which has shaped development in the world economy, affected the living conditions of people, and constrained the role of nation states. The international context and the national setting areexplored. The second part analyses some issues of emerging significance in the contemporary world, such as global macroeconomic management, transnational corporations, international capital flows, and cross-border movements of people, to suggest that there are some missing institutions which areneeded. The third part provides a critical evaluation of the existing institutions, in retrospect, with a focus on the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO. It analyses how existing rules need to be modified or existing institutions need to be restructured to meet the present and future needs ofglobal governance. The fourth part explores some important elements of governance which are critical for any vision of the future. It suggests some changes in existing institutions and points to emerging governance needs where new institutions may have to be created.This authoritative volume will be of enormous value to readers with an interest in international economics, development economics, and international relations. It will also be of immense value to practitioners, both policy-makers and diplomats, concerned with problems of global governance, andshould become the standard reference on the subject.

Across an amazing sweep of the critical areas of business regulation - from contract, intellectual property and corporations law, to trade, telecommunications, labour standards, drugs, food, transport and environment - this book confronts the question of how the regulation of business has shifted from national to global institutions. Based on interviews with 500 international leaders in business and government, this book examines the role played by global institutions such as the WTO, the OECD, IMF, Moody's and the World Bank, as well as various NGOs and significant individuals. The authors argue that effective and decent global regulation depends on the determination of individuals to engage with powerful agendas and decision-making bodies that would otherwise be dominated by concentrated economic interests. This book will become a standard reference for readers in business, law, politics and international relations.

An argument that globalization is an ungoverned integration process in which US firms are agents of structural change. It describes the benefits and costs (for example, generating pressure for protection of US home markets), and reviews the expansion of interdependencies between the US and others.

Increasing and intensified cross-border economic exchange such as trade and investment is an important feature of globalization. In the past, a distinction could be made between capital importing and exporting countries, or host and home countries for foreign direct investment (FDI). Due to globalization, FDI is presently made by and in both developed and developing countries. Differences in political, economic and legal systems and culture are no longer obstacles for FDI, and to varying degrees the economic development of almost all countries is closely linked with the inflow of FDI. This book conducts critical assessments of aspects of current international law on FDI, focusing on cases decided by the tribunals of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and other tribunals as well as decisions of annulment ad hoc committees of the ICSID. In examining such cases, Guiguo Wang takes into account the Chinese culture and China’s practice in the related areas. The book explores topics including: the development and trend of international investment law; unilateral, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms for encouraging and protecting FDIs; determination of qualified investors and investments and consent as conditions for protection; relative and absolute standards of treatment; determination of expropriation in practice; assessment of compensation for expropriation; difficulties in enforcing investment arbitral awards; and alternatives for improving the existing system. The book will be of great use and interest to scholars, practitioners and students of international investment law and international economic law, Asian law, and Chinese studies.

In Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law, Alexandre Genest proposes the first empirical typology of performance requirement prohibitions in investment treaties and the first in-depth analysis of arbitral awards on the subject, which will improve their interpretation and drafting.