The EU's human rights obligations towards the wider world and the international investment regime : making the promise enforceable

Abstract

This thesis uses the case of the international investment regime to demonstrate how the human rights framework that governs EU external relations can be operationalized in the realm of international economic law making. The first part of the thesis outlines the legal foundations for the EU to become a shaper of the international investment regime. These legal foundations are firstly found in the unique human rights framework consisting of human rights as a general principle and objective, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and international human rights law and secondly in the international investment competence of the EU. The second part of the thesis demonstrates the inaccessibility of the current international investment regime for human rights interests and shows that recent EU reforms fail to address the major inequalities of rights protection inherent in the investment regime. This regulatory tilt is however difficult to uphold in light of the normative framework established by the first part. The third part analyses two mechanisms, which were developed in the trade context: Ex-ante human rights impact assessments for EU trade and investment agreements and civil society monitoring bodies of EU trade and sustainable development chapters. In examining these mechanisms, this part explores the question of whether they could work towards mitigating the inequalities of rights protection. The potential of these mechanisms lies in their capacities to ensure a comprehensive assessment of policy impacts as well as to empower traditionally marginalized rights-holders to participate in the making, implementation and contestation of the international investment regime. These two methods – comprehensive assessment of policy impacts and empowerment of rights-holders – are embedded in other EU structural principles and the international human rights discourse and would, so this part argues, enable the EU to discharge its human rights obligations. To seize this potential, substantial reforms and a shift of conceptions are however still necessary. This part also analyses what parameters need to be changed in order to utilize these mechanisms for building sustainable institutions that enable marginalized local communities to inject their interests into the design and implementation of international investment regulations. Next to providing concrete proposals, this thesis therefore also demonstrates in a generalizable manner how the broad constitutional human rights mandate can gain precise shape and be broken down into clear benchmarks to which EU international economic law making can be held accountable to.