CYIL vol. 10 (2019)

ONDŘEJ SVOBODA – JAN KUNSTÝŘ CYIL 10 ȍ2019Ȏ the EU. In their opinion, the EU “surrender[s] to the political pressure against investment arbitration” and in analysing the development, they “tried to look at the current problems with the view of lawyers, if possible free from the aspects of politics and populism” (p. 141). In this sense, the book is engaging and stimulating. For instance, it identifies some weaknesses of the investment court system designed to replace ISDS and correctly recognises these proposed reforms as a means of reasserting State control over dispute settlement mechanisms between foreign investors and Host States. 4 On the other hand, some reforms proposed by the EU are, in the eyes of the authors, reasonable or even desirable, such as the inadmissibility of investors’ claim if the investment has been made through fraudulent misrepresentation, concealment, corruption, or conduct amounting to an abuse of process (p. 61). Separately, it is not entirely clear why the authors include in their study a chapter on EU law and CJEU’s jurisprudence perspective. In this chapter, they predominantly discuss internal issues of EU law, which may affect the EU investment policy, but do not raise general questions for the whole universe of investment agreements. The chapter regarding EU law therefore confirms the impression of an EU-centric study. Other important mega-regionals covering investment protection, such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) or the new bilateral investment negotiations commenced by Brazil and India are mentioned too briefly to offer a comprehensive analysis. The focus on the EU in this study is entirely sound, however, if the reader expects the book to provide a broad overview of different investment policies in an increasingly diverse landscape, 5 they would likely be disappointed. Fortunately, the book is structured to allow for potential additions and further expansion. It is likely that the future editions of this book will include chapters analysing other investment protection treaties. To conclude, the book’s publication is certainly timely. It brings a valuable contribution to the current literature on international economic law, and in particular, on international investment law in the Czech Republic. It will help the readers to understand the current international investment policy landscape in transition and support their critical legal thinking on this increasingly politicised field of international law. Without any hesitation, we highly recommend Šturma and Balaš’s book as an important study on this subject for years to come. Ondřej Svoboda*, Jan Kunstýř**

4 Similarly, SVOBODA, O., Systém investičního soudu: Překotný rozchod Evropské unie s investiční arbitráží, Právník , roč. 158, č. 4, 2019. 5 See e.g. MOROSINI, Fabio, SANCHEZ BADIN, Michelle Ratton (eds.), Reconceptualizing International Investment Law from the Global South , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2017; Symposium on BRICS Approach to the Investment Treaty System, AJIL Unbound , Vol. 112, 2018. * Mgr. Bc. Ondřej Svoboda is a PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. This review was produced within the project of the Faculty of Law of the Charles University Progres Q04 – “Právo v měnícím se světě”. ** Mgr. Bc. Jan Kunstýř, LLM Graduate of Uppsala University, Sweden, and MA Graduate of Faculty of Law, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, currently working as a junior lawyer in Prague.

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