ABSTRACT
This chapter utilises the ‘public policy’, ‘public interests’, ‘non-investment policy’, and the ‘right to regulate’ interchangeably. The China–European Union (EU) Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is expected to belong to the emerging new generation of global international investment treaties (IIAs), which transcends the scope of traditional bilateral investment treaties and epitomizes several innovative characteristics, inter alia the inclusion of provisions addressing a wide range of public policy concerns. The chapter examines the similarities and differences in the public policy provisions embedded in recent IIAs of the EU and China, and discuss ways in which the CAI could incorporate public policy considerations. In Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), the public policy provisions are well entrenched in the preamble. The preamble also states that CETA is to be implemented consistent with the enforcement of national law concerning labour and environmental protection.
