ABSTRACT
The world is in the era of globalization. A typical aspect of globalization is the emergence of technically specialized cooperation networks with a global scope, and spheres of life and expert cooperation that transgress national boundaries and are difficult to regulate through traditional international law. Traditionally, states are the basic units that structure international political life and the ultimate sources of legal and coercive authority within their territories. Deepening globalization has weakened such 'territory-based' regulatory authority and gives rise to an urgent call for global governance. In the era of globalization, investment activities become transnationalized and swiftly complicated. International law is fragmented. International society in the twentieth century was structured as state-centric and such a character is likely to persist. International investment agreements (IIAs) play an insufficient role as a major norm supplier for an effective global-investment governance regime. ISA can play a deterring function in a state's public policy decision-making, a phenomenon often described as 'regulatory chill'.
