With the advancing globalization of the world economy, domestic economic regulations are becoming more and more subject to efforts at international harmonization. This book presents an analysis of this worldwide phenomenon from both a legal and a politico-economic perspective by focusing on (1) the backgrounds and objectives of international harmonization, (2) the negotiating processes involved, and (3) the impact of harmonization on domestic laws and their administration. International harmonization is discussed in a wide range of cases including trade-related regulations, technical standards and food safety standards, intellectual property rights, labour standards, competition law and policy, financial regulations, and regulations concerning transnational economic crime. Drawing on a wide range of materials and applying a unified analytical framework based on theoretical as well as practical observations, the book surveys this much debated topic in a comprehensive and accessible way. It thus contributes to a better understanding of both the chances and the challenges of globalization and global governance today.

Nationalization disputes in natural resources development are among the most disputed issues of international investment law. This book offers a fresh insight into the nature of nationalization disputes in natural resources development and the rules of international investment law governing them by systematically analyzing (1) the content of investment contracts in natural resources development, and (2) the results of nationalization disputes in natural resources development from the perspective of dynamic bargaining theory. Based on the comprehensive and systematic empirical analyses, the book sheds new light on contractual renegotiation and renewal as a hardly known but practically normal solution of nationalization disputes and presents a set of soft law rules governing contractual renegotiation and renewal.

Published under the auspices of the American Society of International Law. We would highly recommend this book for purchase. It is a valuable addition to any international law library. Int’ l J. of Legal Information, Vol. 27, No.1 This is the second volume to grow out of the cooperative research sponsored by the ASIL, the Canadian Council on International Law, and the Japan Association of International Law. With emphasis on recent developments in human rights law, international trade and investment, arms control, and other emerging areas of law, the authors concentrate on dispute resolution, compliance, and enforcement of the law. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), currently under negotiation among 11 countries of the Asia Pacific region, would become a path-breaking free trade agreement (FTA) of the 21st century. This book is the first academic attempt to locate the TPP within the broad context of the changing global trade governance and global business environment. The book aims for an objective and accurate prediction of the final text of the TPP, based on publicly available sources of information, and elucidates the impacts of the TPP upon the economy and regulatory systems of its member countries. Focusing on the backgrounds and prospects of TPP, the book explores the emerging global trade governance provided by the TPP, which would eventually be completed by the restructuring and reinvigoration of the WTO. The book also elucidates the causes and dynamics which had led the U.S. to take the initiative to tackle on them through the TPP. This book also synthesizes the analysis and makes a projection of the developments of the global trade governance in the 21st century after the TPP. The book concludes by making a set of policy proposals for the reconstruction of the global trade governance by avoiding the worst pessimistic scenario, and hence, it is to be seriously considered by major stakeholders of global trade governance including governments, firms, international organizations and the general public.

Globalization in the 1990s provided both opportunities and challenges for developing and transition economies. Though for some, it offered the chance to achieve economic growth through active involvement in the integrated and liberalized world economy, it also increased their vulnerability to external shocks and volatility. As a consequence, stakeholders at every level of the development and transition process - international organizations, national governments and the private sector - had to review their strategies in order to adjust to the new world economic environment. As the Mexican peso crisis of 1994-1995 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 showed dramatically, the cost of maladjustment was not only very high but it also affected many more stakeholders than before, due to the contagious effects of crises. This revealing book analyzes the different methods employed to manage globalization and development. Bringing together an international team of contributors, including Barbara Stallings, Alicia Giron and J. C. Ferraz, it will prove to be a valuable resource for those involved in the fields of development economics and political economy.

Many argue that East Asian countries have come to adopt aggressive legalism in trade and investment policy, in the sense that they have come to settle their trade and investment disputes through the dispute settlement mechanism (DSM) of the WTO and the other third-party procedures. Scrutiny of the dispute cases of these countries shows, however, that East Asian legalism is not so aggressive, that it varies country by country, and that there still exists room for negotiated deals in settling trade and investment disputes among them. On the other hand, the recent move toward regional integration through free trade agreements (FTAs), economic partnership agreements (EPAs), and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in East Asia may lead to the adoption of a more aggressive legalism in the region, in particular in settling investment disputes, disputes relating to intellectual property rights, and trade remedies.

The Concept Paper discusses ways to reinvigorate the WTO as a forum for trade negotiation and trade-related rule-making, dealing with both negotiation and decision-making procedures and possible subject matters. Although it makes several proposals to overcome the current impase of the WTO as a forum for negotiation, it concludes with a rather pessimistic view on the feasibility of such proposals, at least in the near future. It, therefore, belongs to the dystopian camp in the WTO2.0 project.

Globalization of supply chains, or the 2nd generation of globalization, has progressed in East Asia and the Pacific since the mid-1980s. Based on the two-dimensional fragmentation model developed by Fukunari Kimura and Mitsuyo Ando, this paper traces the evolution of global supply chains in the region and elucidates the policy measures that are needed to support and sustain such supply chains. East Asian countries have voluntarily adopted these policy measures since the mid-1980s, but there remains the need to adopt additional policy measures to develop and sustain the global supply chains in the region. FTAs, notably high-standard and broad-based regional or mega-FTAs, are the appropriate means to achieve this objective, because they cover many of the policy measures that are needed for the development of global supply chains. This paper presents the TPP and the RCEP as the two most promising candidates for such FTAs, and argues that Japan is in a position to pursue the aforementioned objective by transplanting the high standard discipline of the TPP into the RCEP.