Services and Investment Chapters in Free Trade Agreements: Liberalisation, Regulation and Law

Abstract:     
While economics, politics and even culture are keys to the free trade agreements, legal design is also important. The design of the legal structure involves strategic choices, aimed primarily to promote as much liberalisation as possible, but also, in doing so, to manage or mediate the relationship with the regulatory competence which governments wish to retain. This paper examines the options and traps in working through the key legal components to these services and investment chapters. They will be: the definitions of its scope, the parties' norms and obligations, the listing of commitments or reservations, the allowance for exceptions, the standards which domestic regulation must meet, and the dispute resolution processes.

Keywords: free trade agreements, Liberalisation, Regulation and Law

Working Paper Series