Full Description
The rules-based international economic order is undergoing profound transformation. Geopolitical risk and geoeconomic strategy are no longer external shocks to a stable system; they now shape the core of international economic law (IEL), influencing trade regulation, investment protection, digital governance, and supply-chain design. Tariffs, sanctions, investment screening, data controls, and security-driven regulation have become structural features of the global economy.
This edited volume originates from the 9th Asian International Economic Law Network (AIELN) Conference, held in Tokyo in June 2025 under the theme "Geopolitical Risks and Geoeconomics in International Economic Law: Asian Perspectives and Beyond." It brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how IEL is responding to persistent geopolitical uncertainty and regulatory risk.
The chapters analyze how legal frameworks allocate the costs of geopolitical and regulatory risk, whether the liberal trading system is fragmenting into regional or minilateral arrangements, and how security, resilience, and sustainability are reshaping market access and investment governance. A central question is whether international economic law can adapt to these pressures without abandoning rule-based multilateralism.
Placing Asia at the center of the analysis, the volume explores whether Asian states can move beyond being objects of great-power strategies and instead act as norm entrepreneurs shaping the future of international economic law.
Contents
Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Table of Contents.- About the Editors.- List of editors and contributors.- Introduction.- Geopolitical Conflict, Geoeconomic Manoeuvring, and the Law of the Jungle: Are We Witnessing the End of the Liberal Trading Order.- Sustainable Digitalization and Cyber Resilience on the Supply Chain.- How to Capture "Supply Chain Resilience" under Justifications of the WTO Law.- Geopolitical Risk and International Economic Law: An Empirical Framework for Designing Resilient Trade and Investment Rules.- How Geopolitics Shape New Forms of International Economic Ordering.- Investment Screening Mechanisms under the Investment Treaty Law: The Case of the UK's National Security and Investment Act.- Does the Frequent Invocation of the National Security Exception Render WTO Disciplines Meaningless? Exploring Viable Options under the Current WTO Dispute Settlement Mechanism.- Beyond Investment Protection: A Theory of Political Risk Governance in International Investment Law.- National Security Concerns and Data Governance: Export Restrictions on Data and Its Implications for International Economic Law.- Conflict between Environmental Protection and Investment Protection.- Digital Silk Road or Cyber Silk Curtain? Geo-economics and Legal Dynamics of China's Belt and Road Initiative within ASEAN under the RCEP Framework.- Bamboo in the Storm: A Vietnamese Perspective on Data Sovereignty and Trust in the Digital Economy.- "Soft" Law on Cybersecurity and Data Governance: Strengthening Asia's Digital Economy.- Normative Reconstruction of Data Governance in Asia Amid Geopolitical Shifts.-The Case for the Development of an Asian Regional AI Framework: Expanding the Discussion on "Sovereign AI" to a Regional Level.- Technology Transfer in the Health Sector: Between Voluntary Licenses and Competition.- Principles of Sustainable Finance Regulation and Their International Investment Law Implications: The Case of Hong Kong and its Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance.
