Yen, Trinh Hai --- "East Asian Investment Treaties in the Integration Process: Quo Vadis?" [2011] ELECD 470; in Buckley, P. Ross; Hu, Weixing Richard; Arner, W. Douglas (eds), "East Asian Economic Integration" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: East Asian Economic Integration

Editor(s): Buckley, P. Ross; Hu, Weixing Richard; Arner, W. Douglas

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849808682

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: East Asian Investment Treaties in the Integration Process: Quo Vadis?

Author(s): Yen, Trinh Hai

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

8. East Asian investment treaties in
the integration process: quo
vadis?
Trinh Hai Yen

INTRODUCTION

Investment treaties are instruments of international law by which states
undertake commitments to other states with regard to international
investors and investments and they provide enforcement mechanisms for
those commitments.1 Investment treaties in this chapter include bilat-
eral investment treaties (BITs) and bilateral or multilateral economic
agreements with investment provisions such as free trade agreements.
The ten ASEAN nations and China, Japan and South Korea have
made 67 investment treaties. Given this large number, these treaties
provide prospects for the development of a common legal investment
instrument.
Efforts to regionalize the legal framework for intra-East Asia invest-
ment were first undertaken in the East Asia Study Group (EASG) report
published at the ASEAN+3 Summit in 2002. The report contained pro-
posals for an East Asia Free Trade Area and an East Asia Investment
Area.2 A Joint Expert Group from ASEAN+3 countries suggested that
the economic benefits from an East Asian Free Trade Area (EAFTA)
exceed those of AFTA (ASEAN Free Trade Area), any ASEAN+1 Free
Trade Area (FTA), or any other bilateral or sub-regional arrangements.3


1 Jeswald W. Salacuse, The Law of Investment Treaties (New York: Oxford

University Press, 2010), 1.
2 Final Report of the East Asia Study Group (EASG), ASEAN+3 Summit,

4 November 2002, accessed 2 September 2010, http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/asia-
paci/asean/pmv0211/report.pdf.
3 `Towards an East ...