Agora 3: Trade and Investment between International and European Law

Trade and investment are core issues at the crossroads of international and European law. The EU has gradually expanded its trade competences and succeeded into its member states’ position in global trade arrangements like the GATT and other WTO agreements. Most recently, the take-over of member state powers in the field of concluding investment treaties with third parties has led to contested new external powers of the EU. Trade and investment issues are meanwhile litigated before a multiplicity of fora, such as the WTO dispute settlement system, regional trade agreements, the Court of Justice of the EU, investment arbitration tribunals as well as national courts. Host states invoke EU law as a defence in investment cases and traders try to rely on international law before regional and national courts.
This agora will analyze the frictions and bridges between the global and the regional, between international and European law, in regulating common problems at different levels. It will also focus on the role of international law in the European legal order addressing trade and investment disputes and vice versa.