External publications

Justice and the Global investment regime

Berger, Axel / Andrea Bjorklund / Manjiao Chi
Externe Publikationen (2025)

in: Axel Berger / Clara Brandi / Eszter Kollar (eds.), Justice in Global Economic Governance: Normative and Empirical Perspectives on Promoting Fairer Globalisation, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 21-31

ISBN: 978-1-399-53013-2
Open access

Foreign Direct investment (FDI) is considered a key promoter of economic development, since it provides access to external financing, technology, managerial expertise and jobs. However, FDI is limited to a small number of locations and many low and middle-income countries (LMICs) continue to be excluded from global foreign investment flows. The reasons for this exclusion are manifold and may vary from country to country. A particular policy instrument LMICs have traditionally resorted to in order to attract FDI are international investment agreements (IIAs).¹ LMICs have signed thousands of these agreements since the late 1950s.[...] The following section reviews the global investment regime from the perspective of socioeconomic justice and analyses the distributional effects of IIAs. Then, the chapter assesses the global investment regime from an intergenerational perspective and asks to what extent IIAs contribute to (or restrict) the pursuit of sustainabale develoment. The final section concludes and provides on overview of current reform proposals.

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