The contributions in this volume examine CETA, TTIP, and TiSA as prime examples of ‘mega-regional’ agreements that are central to a new orientation in international economic law in general and EU external economic relations in particular. While concentrating on CETA, TTIP, and TiSA as the main EU instruments in the worldwide turn to regional and mega-regional agreements, the book places these initiatives in the broader context of other mega-regional projects such as TPP. In the first two chapters, this book examines main motivations for negotiating mega-regional agreements and changing conceptions of international economic law. In nine further contributions, international experts examine sectoral issues such as the trade, investment, and dispute settlement disciplines envisaged in these ‘mega-regional’ agreements. Moreover, the progress made in intellectual property protection, the problems associated with data protection, disciplines on financial services, human rights, labour and environmental standards, issues of transparency and legitimacy, and the relationship between CETA, TTIP, and TiSA on the one hand and EU law on the other are analysed. Finally, four short contributions discuss fundamental questions surrounding these mega-regional agreements from an economic, a political science, and a legal perspective. The last chapter of this volume summarizes principal conclusions presented in the chapters of the book and highlights themes that recur in them.
The Sociology of International Economic Law: Sociological Analysis of the Regulation of Regional Agreements in the World Trading System