Investing the ASEAN Way: Theories and Practices of Economic Integration in Southeast Asia

Sungjoon Cho · Jürgen Kurtz

Nov 2022 · Integration through Law The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration Book 19 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

In recent decades, South East Asia has become one of the world's most popular destinations for foreign investment. The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have employed varying modalities to pursue first security and then economic cooperation. This book explores regional law and governance in ASEAN through the lens of its regulation of foreign investment. It adopts a new framework to identify the unique ontological autonomy of the ASEAN Investment Regime beyond a simple aggregation of its individual member states. It deploys a sociology-led approach (especially constructivism) and emphasizes ideational factors (such as culture and norms) that guide state actions from within. The book explores the manner in which ASEAN's history and culture have fundamentally shaped its foreign investment policies, leading to outcomes that often depart fundamentally from the external structure and script of Global Investment Law.

About the author

Sungjoon Cho is a Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Technology. He is a member of arbitration panel roster under Chapter 14 (Dispute Settlement) of the Korea–European Union Free Trade Agreement. He is the author of The Social Foundations of World Trade: Norms, Community, and Constitution (Cambridge, 2015; paperback in 2017).

Jürgen Kurtz is a Professor of International Economic Law at the European University Institute. Jürgen is the author of The WTO and International Investment Law: Converging Systems (Cambridge, 2016) and co-editor of International Trade, Investment and the Sustainable Development Goals (Cambridge, 2020).