The Foundations Of International Economic Order In The Age Of State Capitalism

The present chapter is premised on the assumption that the promotion of liberal market values is an essential objective of the international economic order, but that so too is (and will be) the preservation of institutional diversity and the capacity for institutional innovation, against which it always has to be balanced. Several different international rules may apply to state enterprises. After situating state enterprises in the contemporary international legal system, looking particularly at economic relations among states, this chapter will focus on the main challenges to regulation that government influence on state enterprises' activities poses to the two areas of international trade law and international investment law in light of their foundational principles and common subtext. Ultimately, it argues that the regulation of state enterprises in international investment law and international trade law appears to be inarticulate and unbalanced; ergo, no concrete answers are provided to key normative questions pertaining, for instance, to the coverage of state enterprises under IIAs; national security carve-outs; Article XVII of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) and subsidies disciplines. As a result, the commercial and political challenges posed threaten the balance between liberal market and institutional innovation.