Emerging Order and Institutional Learning: The EU in the Investment Complex

• In Event: Emergent Order in International Regime Complexes: Cross-Complex Comparison

Abstract

Henning and Pratt (2018) invite us to analyze regime complexes’ emerging order through three dimensions: relations of authority, differentiation, and dependence. Building on this conceptualization, this paper argues that these three dimensions interact endogenously, creating instability in the evolution of regime complexes. The paper does so by drawing attention to the process of “institutional learning.” Learning within a regime complex reproduces relations of authority (between teacher and students), creates differentiation (between those who know and those who do not), and fosters relations of operational dependence (by drawing lessons from others’ experiences). Learning can thus be a process that governs the emergence and the evolution of ordering arrangements.

Empirically, this paper examines institutional learning within the regime complex for international investment. Formally, the investment complex exhibits low degrees of authority, differentiation, and operational dependence. The informal process of institutional learning suggests a different characterization, however. The recent articulation of a European policy on investment agreements provides a good illustration. The 2007 Treaty of Lisbon gave the European Union (EU) new competences with respect to investment law, inviting EU authorities to learn the art of negotiating investment agreements. The EU initially reproduced informal relations of authorities by borrowing heavily from the US model agreement on investment, even to the detriment of models put forward by individual European countries. However, a controversial investment dispute in Germany forced EU authorities to draw lessons from past experiences and introduce innovations. More recently, the EU has been trying to establish its authority in the regime complex by promoting its policy innovation as a lesson for others. By doing so, the investment complex is evolving endogenously in dynamic and non-linear ways.

Authors

• Jean-Frederic Morin, Laval University

• Claire Peacock, Laval University