The Role of mega-regional FTA(s) in Solving the Challenges of International Investment Law

Since about one decade ago, a new and growing trend of negotiating for concluding the “mega-regional trade agreement(s)” has emerged, in which international trade and service are being regulated in parallel with investment-related obligations under one single agreement. It seems that such agreements which currently are being negotiated, or some have even been concluded, are ambitious projects for pursuing the aim of creating an integrated and multilateral system to govern both international trade and investment comprehensively. For this goal to be achieved, it is reasonable to assume that these agreements should, among other things, be primarily capable of providing proper responses to the challenges have been raised in response to the international investment law regime so as to eventually be able to present balanced and legitimate types of international investment agreements which could be embraced by all states. Accordingly, in the present research, through an analysis of the investment-related provisions of the distinguished instances of mega-regionals, we try to explore their capability to overcome the challenges have been raised in the field. The research also addresses the systemic impacts may mega-regionals have on the international investment law’s regime, particularly on each of its sources. Keywords: Regional Trade, International Investment Law, The backlash, Investment Arbitration, mega-regional Trade agreements, Integration.