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This paper aims to examine the extent to which these reforms address the limitations of Saudi Arabia’s previous investment framework. Long viewed as a hostile environment in which to do business, the Saudi Government has enacted a broad sweep of measures aimed at restoring investor confidence in central aspects of the country’s evolving private law framework.

This paper offers a timely assessment of the raft of foreign investment reforms, both legislative and regulatory, that have been introduced in Saudi Arabia over the last decade.

The paper will proceed by outlining the perceived failings of the old investment regime before going on to reforms.

It will consider the remaining obstacles to the flow of foreign investment in Saudi Arabia in the context of the dual forces that have historically defined the Kingdom’s ambivalent investment law regime.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, the paper aims to determine the separate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions represented by the index of stringency, containment and economic support on the attractiveness of foreign direct investment (FDI). Secondly, the paper aims to explore the impact of the interactions between the COVID-19 epidemic and government interventions on FDI.

The study uses a panel data set of 30 Asian countries during the two pandemic years 2020 and 2021 to investigate the effect of government actions on the resilience of FDI attractiveness factors.

The empirical results reveal the negative effect of COVID-19 on FDI inflows and attractiveness factors. However, government responses have a positive and statistically significant effect on the FDI attractiveness factors such as economic growth, trade openness and human and technological capital development and contribute to the economic recovery of the Asian region.

The empirical findings can provide useful information for policymakers in designing macroeconomic policies and taking government measures to improve their investment environment and attract FDI.

The study shows that government responses, economic support, containment and health policies are effective in containing viruses, reducing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening resilience in FDI attractiveness factors. It also indicates that foreign investors are responding positively to government measures.

International investment law governs matters related to transnational investments. The extensive reach of transnational corporations (TNCs) has granted them substantial economic, political and social influence, often intertwining them with public interest issues and implications in human rights violations. This paper aims to explore the profound influence exerted by TNCs in today’s globalized world and its implications for human rights and social responsibility within the framework of international investment law. Particularly, it acknowledges the vulnerability of economically weak South Asian states and cites past instances such as the Bhopal gas tragedy in India and the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh as egregious violations of human rights. Focusing on South Asian bilateral investment treaties (BITs), this paper aims to examine the scope of investors’ social accountability.

This research engages with doctrinal and analytical methods in traversing through primary and secondary sources. It would parse the arbitral tribunals’ jurisprudence for their discussion on the inclusion of social accountability obligations within international investment agreements (IIAs). Further, it engages in a quantitative analysis related to the nature of the social accountability-related obligation of the corporation within South Asian BITs.

The findings reveal a glaring absence of the law on investors’ social accountability and the need for enhanced regulatory mechanisms to address the escalating influence of TNCs on human and social rights. The absence of a robust legal framework, coupled with the asymmetric nature of international investment law, granting investors greater rights and leverage compared to states, exacerbates this challenge. The phenomenon of “regulatory chill” inhibits states from effectively enforcing regulatory measures aimed at protecting human rights and the environment. Furthermore, the broad interpretation of clauses such as “fair and equitable treatment” by investment tribunals often undermines states’ ability to implement measures in the public interest. While international organizations such as the UNCTAD and the UNCITRAL Working Group III are actively discussing reforms to IIAs, the existing guidelines addressing investors’ social accountability are woefully lacking in the content as well as the method of their integration with international human rights law. The findings underscore the imperative for South Asian nations, the subject of this research’s empirical analysis, to adopt a comprehensive approach involving both domestic law reforms to promote corporate social accountability and active pursuit of negotiations for the inclusion of binding social obligations for investors within IIAs.

This research, drawing upon international law developments, offers suggestions for incorporation of social accountability provisions via relevant domestic law reform. The research could be viewed as a prelude for mapping the legal developments in the area of investors’ social accountability within investment agreements, as well as investment contracts, drawing guidance from international law instruments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no other study analysed the scope of investors’ social accountability in South Asian BITs.

This study aims to examine the role of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) in attracting higher foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the major emerging economies namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) from the source developed, developing and other emerging economies over a period of 18 years from 2001 to 2018.

To estimate the results, panel data regression on a gravity-knowledge capital model has been used. To account for the problem of endogeneity we have used the two-step difference Generalised Method of Moments estimator proposed by Arellano and Bond (1991).

We find that contradictory to theory and expectations, BITs result in a fall in FDI inflows in BRICS economies. BITs ratified by BRICS economies are not able to provide a sound and secure investment environment to foreign investors, thereby discouraging FDI in these economies.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the impact of BITs on FDI inflows into the emerging BRICS economies. Further, the impact of BITs on FDI flows among developed nations, i.e. north-north FDI and from developed to developing countries, i.e. north-south FDI has already been studied by many researchers. But so far, no study has examined this impact on FDI among developing and emerging economies (south-south FDI), despite an increase in FDI flows among these economies. Therefore, this study seeks to overcome the limitations of previous studies and tries to find out the impact of BITs on FDI inflows in BRICS economies not only from source developed but also from source developing and other emerging economies.

Critical examination of Bangladeshi laws related to workers’ rights in the garment industry. This paper aims to examine the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the protection of garment workers’ rights in Bangladesh, analyzing how international investment practices influence labor standards and the overall well-being of workers in the garment industry.

In this study, qualitative and analytical methods has been used to analyze legal frameworks related to labor rights in Bangladesh and BITs.

The findings indicate a need to strengthen the current legal framework to better protect workers' rights in Bangladesh. The study also provides recommendations for the relevant authorities to improve the existing laws.

Novel idea critically evaluating the Bangladeshi legal framework in the context of foreign direct investment and implications for worker's rights.

The regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) is promising as per the claims and can be revolutionary for the Asia–Pacific Region. The member countries will get a boost in the post-pandemic world due to the RCEP. According to Brookings, the RCEP is going to be an agreement reshaping the global economics. This study aims to clarify the aspects related to the RCEP and how it can boost global economics.

The study employs qualitative descriptive analysis to address the status of RCEP in the region and the consequences of such main transnational partnership. The study is based on economic reports, official documents and data directly related to the subject of the study.

Findings show that the RCEP will be a significant driver of regional trade despite its faults. The RCEP's tariff benefits and rules of origin, notwithstanding their relatively restricted scope, will encourage enterprises to source products and services from RCEP members, and in combination, RCEP and Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) are anticipated to replace at least some competing US commodities, services and farm exports. For items that integrate parts and components from inside the area, such as from China, the RCEP is projected to reduce tax and trade facilitation costs, allowing enterprises to avoid US Section 301 tariffs.

By examining how the RCEP operates within the framework of domestic and international trade, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of RCEP and analyses its nature based on data and official reports.

This paper aims to use the obsolescing bargaining power (OBP) Model (Vernon, 1977, 1998) to analyze the case of United Company Rusal, a Russian politically connected multinational companies (MNCs) that was one of the world’s largest aluminum companies between 2005 and 2014, having acquired and, ultimately, sold the Montenegrin aluminum smelter company Kombinat aluminijuma Podgorica.The authors did so with the aim of answering the following question: How do geopolitics affect the bargaining balance of power between a Russian MNC and a host country?

The authors used the discourse analysis methodology to identify the key players in the bargaining process and illustrate the evolving bargaining process.

The authors demonstrated that, over time, the shift in power from the Russian MNC to the host government had not merely been the result of the increase in committed MNC assets in the host country but, rather, of a geopolitical chess game involving the Russian Government, North Atlantic treaty organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU). By extending the OBP model with geopolitics, the authors found that a political agenda can influence the outcome of a bargaining process.

The authors extended the OBP model to illustrate the complex interaction between an emerging market MNC and an emerging host country government, indirectly influenced by two supranational organizations – the EU and NATO.

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), democracy and carbon intensity. This study examines the influence of types of democracy on the relationship between inward FDI and carbon intensity. For this purpose, it uses five varieties of democracy, including a composite democracy indicator as moderating variables.

This study applies the fixed-effects panel quantile regression approach that considers unobserved heterogeneity and distributional heterogeneity using panel data from 160 countries during 1990–2020. By taking into account sudden changes in the volume of inward FDI, an event study is conducted across various sub-samples of democracy to check the robustness of the results.

The results show that FDI has a significantly negative impact on carbon intensity of the host country in the upper quantiles. In general, different types of democracy have a significant positive impact on carbon intensity across different quantiles. After considering the other factors, including industry intensity, trade openness, green technology, fossil fuel dependency and International Environmental Agreements, there is evidence that all types of democracy moderate the relationship between FDI and carbon intensity, thereby supporting the halo effect hypothesis. In addition, the interaction effects have a significant negative impact on carbon intensity of low- and high-carbon-intensive countries.

This paper offers several contributions to the literature on the effect of FDI and democracy on carbon intensity. This study overcomes the limitations related to the conceptualization and measurement of democracy found in the literature. While prior research has predominately concentrated on how democracy promotes the selection of FDI host-country locations, this study seeks to answer the question of whether democracy type has any effect on inward FDI, thus contributing to improving carbon intensity. Furthermore, this paper analyses the interaction effect on carbon intensity in different countries with different carbon intensity levels separately.

The purpose of this study is to examine different paths to overcoming the liability of foreignness. Based on the eclectic paradigm, the authors construct a theoretical framework comprising enterprise nature, location choice, entry mode and internationalization strategy.

The paper uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method to test the framework with data covering 120 multinational Chinese subsidiaries in 34 host in 2019.

The results show that liability of foreignness (LOF) is multiple concurrency, equifinality and asymmetry. When investing in Belt and Road (B&R) countries, non-SEOs can weaken LOF by applying the greenfield mode and resource-seeking strategy, other MNEs can implement a market- or resource-seeking strategy via cross-border M&A to reduce LOF. But when investing in non-B&R countries with a strategic asset-seeking strategy, the LOF is increased. The B&R initiative can reduce the LOF effectively.

The authors construct a general framework to explain the paths of overcoming LOF by bridging the OLI with LOF and introduce fsQCA method into the field of LOF to make up for the shortcoming of existing test method by explaining the influence of more than three factors on LOF.