Trade and investment treaties have proliferated throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Their dispute resolution mechanisms are important in entrenching market access commitments, especially when providing for direct claims by firms against states. But the Global Financial Crisis has also heightened...

International investment, especially Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), continues to grow apace across the Asian region, despite the Asian Financial Crisis and now the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). This paper is based on the introductory chapter for our 13-volume book (Foreign...

This article draws on survey results to provide a preliminary empirical benchmark of the impact in the Asia-Pacific Region of strict-liability product liability law reforms, implemented in many jurisdictions since the 1990s based often on the 1985 European Commission Directive. It identifies...

This Note for the Yearbook of Consumer Law first updates on proposals to reform Australia's consumer product safety regulation regime. Discussions have largely stalled, despite legitimacy and efficiency concerns evident from a related review of its main standard-setting body. By contrast,...

A decade ago, leading arbitration institutions and practitioners responded to growing concerns about burgeoning costs and delays in international commercial arbitration ("ICA") partly through some considerable changes to Arbitration Rules. Nowadays, however, disquiet has re-emerged especially...

The paper is based on my contributions to the East Asia Forum blog (and my partially overlapping "Japanese Law and the Asia Pacific" blog) drawing mainly on developments from the end of 2008 through to mid-2009. Many topics are important not only within Australia and Japan, but also potentially...

This is an updated collection of my own postings on the new East Asia Forum blog. Created primarily by political economists from the Australian National University in mid-2008, the blog is attracting a wide readership and regular contributions from experts interested in or based throughout the...

This paper offers some broader theoretical perspectives on the already wide-ranging and very thought-provoking keynote speech by Professor Filip De Ly, at the Queen Mary University of London conference in April 2015 celebrating the 30th anniversary of its School of International Arbitration. The...

Southeast Asia has long been known as a particularly dynamic part of the global economy. In 2007 the leaders of the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations further agreed to accelerate the project to complete a single market or “ASEAN Economic Community” by the end of...

This paper outlines the historical evolution of Australia's foreign direct investment (FDI) regulation generally, under national law and more recently bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or investment chapters of free trade agreements (FTAs). This sets the stage for closer analysis of the...