CETA, TTIP and Investment Disputes: Comparing Multilevel Governance Implications in the EU and North America

This essay will compare the CETA negotiations on investor rights and investor-state with early proposals for EU-US TTIP discussions. Based on interviews, summaries and draft texts, it will assess CETA’s investment provisions. It will consider stakeholder and official perceptions on the perceived benefits, costs and controversies of an investment chapter. It will take stock of the EU consultative process on investor-state dispute resolutions in the EU-US negotiations and implications for the CETA’s final text. Efforts by Germany and others to keep ISDS in CETA but exclude it from TTIP is a particular focus of the analysis. And it will consider member state and provincial engagement in negotiations on investment, which test both Canadian constitutional practice and EU post-Lisbon competences on investment. The implications for future inclusions of investor state provisions in trade agreements and the constitutional consequences for EU member states, Canadian provinces and US states will be assessed.