On 20 April 2021, Prof. Jan Wouters, professor of international law and international organizations at KU Leuven, Belgium will give an online lecture on some critical reflections of the recently concluded EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI).
This lecture is a part of the guest lecture series organized under the research project EUPLANT: EU-China Legal and Judicial Cooperation, funded by the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Network. We cordially invite you as a participant to this online event. Admission is free, and advance registration is required by filling the form below.
About the lecture
On 30 December 2020 the EU and China concluded in principle the negotiations for the CAI. Under the CAI, China commits to a greater market access for EU investors, makes commitments to ensure fair treatment for European companies and agrees to provisions on sustainable development, including commitments regarding forced labor and a number of International Labor Organization Conventions. Civil society has reacted critically to the deal, pointing to the weakness of the aforementioned labor rights commitments. Some commentators see the deal as untimely, as it is said that it contains too many concessions to China and should have been concluded only after closer alignment with the US Biden administration. Also in the European Parliament, which has to give its consent to the CAI, critical comments have been uttered. The recent developments in Hong Kong and the increasing international criticism regarding the Uighur may further complicate the final conclusion of the CAI. In this lecture the pros and cons of the CAI will be presented and assessed critically.
About Prof. Jan Wouters
Jan Wouters is Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations, Jean Monnet Chair ad personam EU and Global Governance, and founding Director of the Institute for International Law and of the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, an interdisciplinary research center with the status of both a Jean Monnet and KU Leuven Centre of Excellence, at KU Leuven. He is also President of KU Leuven’s International Policy Council. He studied law and philosophy at Antwerp University, obtained an LL.M. at Yale University and was Visiting Researcher at Harvard University. As Visiting Professor at Sciences Po (Paris), Luiss University (Rome) and the College of Europe (Bruges) he teaches EU external relations law. As Adjunct Professor at Columbia University he teaches comparative EU-US perspectives on international human rights law.
He is also currently Visiting Professor at Queen Mary University (London), Paris-II (Panthéon-Assas) and the World Trade Institute (Bern). Prof. Wouters is a Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts and practices law as Of Counsel at Linklaters, Brussels. He is Editor of the International Encyclopedia of Intergovernmental Organizations, Deputy Director of the Revue Belge de Droit International, and an editorial board member in eleven international journals. He has published widely on international and EU law, international organizations, global governance, and corporate and financial law, including 75 books and more than 150 journal articles and 240 chapters in international books. Apart from his participation in international scientific networks, he advises international organizations and governments, trains international officials and is often asked to comment international events in the media.
