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 foreign investment still breathe the air of the liberal, if ...
Continue reading 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 enjoys broad authority to regulate the admission of foreign investment ...
Continue reading 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 direct investments (“FDI”) are often taken at the post-establishment phase—after ...
Continue reading 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 prevent foreign investment screening measures from being subject to successful ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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) ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading 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 ...
Continue reading Latest Blog Posts
Geopolitical Challenges Beyond the European Union: The Evolution of FDI Screening Mechanisms and the Quest for European Security
Federica Marconi* In recent years, the European Union (EU) has been confronted with a series of unprecedented global crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. These events have had a profound impact on the geopolitical and geo-economic landscapes. Concurrently, the rapid advancement of technology has increased global interconnectedness, thereby blurring the lines between the economic importance and security ...
Continue reading ReArm Europe – the Big Bang?
Mats Cuvelier - Associate at White & Case Introduction In the wake of the United States suspending military aid to Ukraine after an infamous meeting at the White House, EU leaders convened at an emergency summit and agreed that "Europe must become more sovereign, more responsible for its own defence and better equipped to act and deal autonomously". To put ...
Continue reading Russian Investments and Corporate Relocation: Economic Strategy or Threat to Democracies
By Davit Maisuradze and Zurab Gvelesiani, Structural Reforms Center (SRC) All Eyes on Ukraine and Quiet Capture of Georgia While the global community is fixated on Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, a parallel but less visible development has been unfolding in the region. Russia has quietly seized control over Georgia, effectively stalling its Europeanization process and severely damaging its ...
Continue reading Trump Administration Signals Material Updates to CFIUS and Outbound Investment Regulations
By Adam M. Smith, Stephenie Gosnell Handler, David Wolber, Michelle Weinbaum, Dharak Bhavsar, and Chris Mullen. On February 21, 2025, the White House issued a National Security Presidential Memorandum titled the “America First Investment Policy” (the “America First Investment memo”) and accompanying fact sheet (Fact Sheet) proposing material changes to the U.S. foreign direct investment and outbound investment regulatory ...
Continue reading The First Annual Report on Dual-Use Export Controls
By Kwinten Dewaele, Research Affiliate at KU Leuven (Institute for Contract Law) Introduction Article 26 of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 ("the Regulation") obliges the European Commission to publish an annual report on the implementation of the Regulation and the activities of the Dual-Use Coordination Group (DUCG). Similar obligations related to FDI screening exist (see Article 5 Regulation (EU) 2019/452). While ...
Continue reading Transatlantic Insecurity: Revaluation of Economic Security Policy’s Business Impacts Amid US-European Turbulence
By John Kay* The recent foreign policy shifts in Washington have triggered a radical reassessment of the U.S.-European relationship, creating an evolving landscape that the transatlantic business community must closely monitor. U.S. investments in the EU are valued at approximately $3.95 trillion, and the two economies have the world’s largest trade and investment relationship. Yet, the starkly different approaches ...
Continue reading The Application of Italian FDI Law to the Creation of Pledges: Monitoring the Reasonable Management of the Company.
by Andrea Gemmi, Associate, BonelliErede; PhD Candidate, University of Padova and Luca Perfetti, Partner, BonelliErede; Full Professor, Pegaso University The article illustrates how the use of vague and indeterminate clauses in the Italian FDI screening law grounds an expansive and unpredictable practice by the FDI authority. In particular, the article addresses the example of the recent case-law concerning the ...
Continue reading CELIS Update on Investment Screening and Economic Security – February 2025
by Helene Schramm with the help of intern Surbhi Gupta INVESTMENT SCREENING MECHANISMS European Union – European Economic Area’s Standing Committee of the EFTA States comments on the Proposal for a regulation on the screening of foreign investments in the Union On 25 February 2025, the European Economic Area (EEA) European Free Trade Association (EFTA) States—comprising Iceland, Liechtenstein, and ...
Continue reading The EU’s Evolving Approach to Open Strategic Autonomy: a Critical Perspective on the Competitiveness Compass for the EU and Other Recent Policy Developments
By Professor Sergio Mariotti, Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA) has emerged as a defining concept in the evolution of European policy, shaped by an increasingly complex economic and geopolitical landscape. Two key dimensions stand out: (i) the central role of industrial policy and (ii) the integration of competitiveness with sovereignty and security ...
Continue reading Investment Screening-Konferenz von BDI und CELIS German Chapter
Globalisation appears to be more and more exhausted. World trade as a guarantor for prosperity and growth remains closely linked to questions of defence and national security. Particularly in the systems competition between the USA and China, more intensive investment controls at home and abroad are becoming a central political issue. For companies, investment controls are associated with bureaucratic effort, ...
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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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