CELIS Blog

The CELIS Blog: Fueling the Conversation on Economic Security. The CELIS Blog is a unique forum for current debates on international investment control and economic security law and practice more broadly. It brings the latest developments and analysis to you. From economic security (law) experts – to economic security (law) experts.

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CELIS–Arnold & Porter Blog Series on Investment Security x Investment Arbitration

Introducing the CELIS–Arnold & Porter Initiative on Investment Security x Investment Arbitration

Authors: Steffen Hindelang (Uppsala University; CELIS Institute), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) and Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute) Most international rules governing ...
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Constraints on the State’s Right to Screen Foreign Investments Prior to Market Entry

Authors: Steffen Hindelang (Uppsala University; CELIS Institute), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) and Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute)    Introduction  As a starting point, a State ...
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Post-Establishment Phase: FDI Screening Decisions and the Treatment of Retroactive Measures in Investment Arbitration

Authors: Bart Wasiak (Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (UK) LLP) and Naina Gupta (Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer (UK) LLP)    Introduction  Decisions concerning the screening of foreign ...
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Shielding Foreign Investment Screening from Challenge under Investment Treaties

Author: Dr. Joshua Paine (University of Bristol)    Introduction  This post considers how States can design international investment agreements (“IIAs”) to ...
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German Administrative Courts Take the Plunge – First Rulings on German Investment Screening Procedures and their Time Frame

Authors: Dr. Roland M. Stein (BLOMSTEIN) and Henriette Wohlschläger (BLOMSTEIN)     Introduction  In light of the prevailing tense global geopolitical climate, investments are no longer regarded ...
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Between Deadlines and Discretion: Timely Decision-Making in Investment Screening

Authors: Xueji Su (University of Macau) and Alessandro Zocchia (University of Macau)    Introduction: The Pocket Veto Phenomenon  Investment screening involves a procedurally layered process involving notification, ...
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Fair and Equitable Investment Screening

Author: Dr. Bálint Kovács (University of Szeged)    Introduction  With the widespread adoption of investment screening by Western states, there is ...
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Legal Standards, Evidentiary Threshold, Transparency and Due Process in the Context of Investment Screening and Investment Disputes

Author: Jonas Hallberg I. Legal Standards and Evidentiary Threshold Security assessments of a prospective investment necessarily involve an assessment of ...
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Disclosure and Confidentiality in Investment Screening

Author: Dorieke Overduin (Sovereign Arbitration Advisors)    Introduction  In order to assess risks posed by foreign direct investments to national security, authorities must ...
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Investment Screening Between Discretion and Arbitrariness – Charting the Borderlands

Authors: Steffen Hindelang (CELIS Institute; Uppsala University), Helene Schramm (CELIS Institute) and Liam McGrath (CELIS Institute) Introduction  Foreign investment screening ...
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Navigating Treaty Liability for Conditional Approvals in Foreign Investment Screening

Author: Dean Merriman (Barrister at the Victorian Bar)    I. Imposition of Conditions on Foreign Investment: Anecdotes from Australia  It is ...
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Parallel Proceedings at the Intersection of FDI Screening and Investment Arbitration

Authors: Sally Pei (Arnold & Porter) and Joel Dahlquist (Arnold & Porter)    Introduction  States in Europe and beyond are increasingly screening ...
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CELIS Special Blog Series on the Revision of the FDI Screening Regulation

Introducing: The Foreign (Direct) Investment Screening Regulation – A blog series on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452

Part I in the CELIS Blog Series on the Revision of the FDI Screening Regulation. Autors: Lena Hornkohl (University of Vienna)[1], Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of ...
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Tug-of-War? Determining the mandatory scope for the new FDI Screening Regulation

Part 2 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors:  Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Leonard von Rummel (Partner, Blomstein) ...
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To Screen or not to Screen? Defining the Deals that Count

Part 3 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors:  Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels), Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Kaarli Eichhorn (Antitrust Partner, Jones ...
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The Devil is in the Details – The Real Screening Report

Part 4 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/452. Authors: Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp), Andrew Hill (AmCham EU, Brussels) Introduction The Commission published its 5th ...
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The Elephant in the Room: Subsidiarity in Investment Screening in the EU

Part 5 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/45 Authors: Andrew Hill (AmCham EU[1]), and Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp) Introduction White smoke poured over ...
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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, What’s the Outcome of the Trilogue?

Part 6 in the CELIS blogseries on the revision of FDI Screening Regulation 2019/45 Authors: Andrew Hill (Amcham Europe), and Floor Doppen (University of Antwerp) Introduction The clock has started ...
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CELIS–L&G Blog Series

Introducing: the CELIS-L&G Blogseries

Welcome, readers, to the inaugural blog post of a new collaboration between the academic journal Law & Geoeconomics (L&G) and the CELIS Institute. To set the tone, we decided to ...
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Proxies, Partners, or Opponents? Rethinking Business–Government Relations in Geoeconomic Competition

Authors: Olivier Schmitt (Royal Danish Defence College), Anna Vlasiuk Nibe (University of Southern Denmark) All articles in Law & Geoeconomics are available free of charge via Brill using the access token LGEO4U until 31 ...
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Why Economic Security Depends on Bureaucracy: The Hidden Side of Derisking

Authors:  M. Di Giulio (Associate Professor, Università di Genova), F. Baraldi (Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), and M. Sguazzini (Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Università di Genova) This blog is part ...
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Can – and should – the EU align with US economic security policy?

Varg Folkman (Policy Analyst, the European Policy Centre) Introduction Back during Europe's summer of discontent in 2025, it went somewhat overlooked -  amidst the larger trade story -  that the ...
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The State of Exception in EU Investment Law

Author: Jochem de Kok (Affiliate Fellow at the Amsterdam Centre for European Law and Governance of the University of Amsterdam and Senior Associate at A&O Shearma) This blog post is ...
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Regulating Critical Minerals and Economic Security in South America: Brazil, Chile, and Argentina in Comparative Perspective

Authors: Natália de Lima Figueiredo (Assistant Professor, Federal University of São Paolo) & Michelle Ratton Sanchez Badin (Associate Professor, FGV São Paulo School of Law) Introduction[1] "Economic security" has quickly ...
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The Small Yard Problem: How America and Japan De-Risk from China

Author: Timothy Cichanowicz (PhD Candidate, University of Kansas) This blog is part of the CELIS-L&G special series. All articles in Law & Geoeconomics are available free of charge via Brill using the ...
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Supply Chain Secondary Sanctions: How China Weaponised Lithuania’s Trade Links

Author: Verónica Fraile del Álamo (PhD Researcher, Australian National University) & Darren J. Lim (Senior Lecturer, Australian National University) This blog is part of the CELIS-L&G special series. All articles ...
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EU Sanctions and Investment Arbitration: An Attempt at Moving the Goalposts through Increased Securitisation?

Author: Alexandros Bakos ((Postdoctoral researcher, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, College of Law) Introduction After the Achmea and Komstroy sagas, marking the end of intra-European Union (EU) investor-state arbitration, the Union ...
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Latest Blog Posts

The ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ (PAFACAA): ‘TikTok Ban’ or New Milestone in US Economic Security Law?

By Paolo Mazzotti, PhD candidate and Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg) The recently adopted 'Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act' (PAFACAA) marks a new step in the evolution of US economic security law. While often referred to as a 'TikTok ban', PAFACAA puts in place a legal framework of general ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – Investment Screening in Defense Sector: Promoting National Security and Neoliberalism

The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS).  Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the CELIS Institute and ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – FDI and EU Strategic Autonomy

The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS).  Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the CELIS Institute and ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – Sovereign Wealth Funds and Investment Screening

The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS).  Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the CELIS Institute and ...
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CELIS Update on Investment Screening – July 2024

Romania – Romanian Parliament introduces new law revising and reinforcing the approach towards EU investors On 17 July 2024, the President of Romania officially promulgated the new law Nr. 231. It took effect three days after its publication in the Official Gazette on 18 July 2024. One of the most important aspects of the new reform is the extension to ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – A firm-level perspective on investment screening in the EU

The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS).  Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the CELIS Institute and ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – Background Paper on Foreign Subsidies Regulation

The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS).  Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the CELIS Institute and ...
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CFIS 24: Paris Insights – Investment Screening and Economic Security in the Majority World

From the Editors The CELIS Blog is launching its very first special series of blog posts ahead of this year's CELIS Forum on Investment Screening (CFIS). Our Programme Sherpas, promising young academics and practitioners in the field, share their views on the topics we will be discussing in the various panels during CFIS. CFIS is the flagship event of the ...
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The First Court (Interim Reliefs) Decision on the Dutch FDI Screening Regime: Setting the Boundaries

By Najibullah Zamani, Radboud University Introduction In recent years, mostly due to geopolitical developments, the perception of FDI by states has changed fundamentally. FDI is used increasingly as a tool to pursue geopolitical and security interests rather than as an objective in itself. As a consequence of this geo-politicization and securitization of FDI, more and more countries are adjusting their ...
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The U.S. Prohibition of the MineOne-Acquisition: What would be the treatment under EU and German Foreign Direct Investment Legislation?

By Benedikt Sichla, Research assistant at Clifford Chance  1. Introduction On May 13, 2024, President Biden issued an order prohibiting for national security reasons the acquisition of real estate and the operation of a cryptocurrency mining facility in close proximity to a U.S. Air Force base. The foreign ownership of the acquirer by nationals of the People’s Republic of China ...
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CELIS Blog Editors

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The CELIS Blog always welcomes posts from economic security professionals that address current issues in international investment screening and economic security law and practice. Would you like to contribute to the Blog? Please contact our editors: blog@celis.institute

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