EU Law Alert: Increased Protection of Foreign Investments Under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Recently Signed Between the European Union and Canada

Marco Plankensteiner co-authored an EU Law Alert dated October 2014 commenting on The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement signed on September 26, 2014 between the European Union and Canada, the first of a new type of investment treaty granting increased protection to foreign investments while ensuring host States’ right to regulate, and which future ratification will significantly impact the legal status of foreign investments in these jurisdictions.

They discuss the following topics:

• The “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” between the European Union and Canada,
  and the ongoing debate on the protection of foreign investments;
• A new generation of investment treaties aimed at ensuring protection of the host State’s “right to regulate”;
• The Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism: arbitral tribunals versus national courts.