China has become the first socialist legal system to acquire an interest and the capacity to invest significantly beyond its own borders and abandon the policies of economic autarchy that approaches to socialist economic planning seemed to impose upon predecessor socialist legal systems.
In this path breaking study, Dr. Chenyang XIE examines how the Chinese legal system regulates – usually by default rather than design – Chinese investor behaviour with respect to outward investment opportunities and/or priorities. He offers intelligent and perceptive critiques of legal rules, institutions, systems, and administrative practices, providing suggestions for potential reform or adjustments of these.
Drawing upon the Chinese tradition of codification, the author has prepared a draft Code of Overseas Investment Law, together with Commentary to explain why each formulation is desirable and necessary. In his view, Chinese overseas investment relations are a “legal laboratory” for shaping a constructive legal regime to encourage and regulate such investment. His bold, subtle, and nuanced strategy embodies reservations about the extent to which in a planned economy the State should assume investment risks rather than the non-State sector.
Subjects covered include the Chinese macro policies and concepts of overseas investment, information services, investment promotion, approvals, authorizations, and filings, financial support, foreign exchange regulation, insurance, taxation, and supervision State-owned assets abroad. The draft Code of Overseas Investment Law is the first of its kind for any legal system.
