A legal history of the EU’s international investment policy

Robert Basedow

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The article traces the evolution of the legal competences of the European Union (EU) in international investment regulation from the Spaak Report (1956) to the Lisbon Treaty (2009). It focuses on the question why and how the EU gradually acquired legal competences in this key domain of global economic governance. The analysis suggests that Commission entrepreneurship and spill-overs from other EU policies were the most important factors fuelling the extension of the EU’s legal competences. The Member States, on the other hand, sought to prevent a competence transfer. European business – arguably the main stakeholder – was mostly uninterested or divided regarding the EU’s role in international investment policy. The findings have implications for our perception of business lobbying in international investment policy and potentially for the legal interpretation and delimitation of the EU’s new competences.

Keywords: European Union; Lisbon Treaty; European integration; Commission entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10-03
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Published in Journal of World Investment and Trade, 3, October, 2016, 17(5), pp. 743-772. ISSN: 1660-7112

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:86423

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