The ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement: The Regionalisation of Laws and Policy on Foreign Investment By Julien Chaisse and Sufian Jusoh (review)

The ASEAN grand experiment of moving gradually but consistently towards regional integration often receives little attention outside the Asian region. The determined negotiation and implementation of a consistent legal framework within the region is, however, not only important for ASEAN states, their neighbours and their trade and investment partners, but also constitutes an interesting and potentially important example of the establishment of a legally binding regime designed to suit the often disparate purposes of states with different histories and legal systems. The ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), as the authors point out in their introduction, represents an attempt to achieve a number of important economic purposes: investment liberalization; investment protection within the ASEAN region and protection for other investors; the provision of a viable method of dispute resolution relating to investment disputes; and commitment to principles of transparency and equitable treatment. This book provides a comprehensive discussion of the purpose and content of the ACIA in a clearly presented and accessible fashion which constitutes a useful addition to the existing literature on the ACIA and ASEAN investment treaty practice.

The book divides the discussion into a number of parts: "Mapping the Growth of the International Law of Foreign Investment in the Asia-Pacific Region" (Part I); "ACIA as a milestone in ASEAN History" (Part II); "The Substantive Regime of the ACIA" (Part III); "Access to Dispute Settlement Mechanisms" (Part IV); and "Emergence of an ASEAN External Investment Policy" (Part V). As one would expect, the meat of the discussion is contained in Parts III and IV. The General Introduction provides a good general background on ASEAN as an investment destination; and Chapter 2, which deals with ASEAN institutions and foreign investment policies, presents some interesting issues which are specific to ASEAN. No doubt for reasons of space, the discussion on the role of international investment agreements in ASEAN was rather brief, although interesting. More could, however, have been made in the discussion of the practical effect of the disparities between the various ASEAN economies and the effect which this has on overall investment policy.

Chapters 3 and 4 provide a brief analysis of investment-treaty making practice in and by the Asian economies, and the growth of free trade agreements with the ASEAN states, as well as the mega-regionals. Again, these chapters are informative, but brief. Chapter 4 contains an interesting discussion of ASEAN's regional agreements, although the book was published before the effective collapse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Part II of the book aims to set the ACIA in its historical context historical, as well as providing background on the complex national and intraASEAN regulatory and legal issues relating to investment. It highlights the fact that the ACIA should be seen in the context of related and parallel developments in terms of trade in goods and agreements on services. Chapter 5 also provides a very useful shorthand overview and summary of the elements and characteristics of the ACIA, which is supported by the brief but useful overview in Chapter 6 of the national investment policies and the role and responsibility of regulators which continue to underpin investment in the ASEAN countries. In particular, the brief description of the degree of investment liberalization of the individual ASEAN states, when combined with their varying, but often restrictive policies in relation to the admission of investment provides very useful background for persons seeking to understand the compromises that were reached in negotiating the ACIA and the reasons for what would appear to an outside observer to be relatively limited steps towards investment liberalization within the region.

Part III, which deals with the substantive provisions of the ACIA, commences with a discussion of investment liberalization under the agreement. A slightly disappointing feature of Chapter 7 and the overall discussion is the decision not to discuss the content of the individual state reservation lists which set out...