Protecting investment in services

"International economic relations are governed by two bodies of international law. Trade in goods and services is the domain of international trade law, embodied in the WTO agreements. Foreign investment is governed by international investment law, consisting of a vast network of investment agreements, including bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs). These two different fields of international law share a large area of overlap: foreign investment in services, around 55% of all global direct investment, is covered by both investment agreements and the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Since the rights and obligations featured in the two frameworks are not always compatible, this legal overlap reduces transparency and undermines governments' regulatory capacity in an unanticipated manner. This is the first book to tackle investment law and trade law jointly, and to compare the principles, rules, and dispute settlement mechanisms of investment agreements with the multilateral framework of the WTO/GATS"--P. [4] of cover.