Atlantic Transitions for Law and Labor: CETA First and TTIP Second?

This essay is based on an ongoing legal analysis of the investment-labor linkage in the forthcoming transatlantic investment mega-treaties (in particular, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA). Should there be a form of EU-wide screening for foreign investment? Theories and practice are observed in order to create a possible template proposal for the forthcoming mega-treaties’ labor chapter involving the EU (paragraph 5). From this viewpoint, it will be pulled out from the impact of labor rights on the investment law the meaning that labor rights can have in the transatlantic relations, also in view of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS)/labor law conflict (i.e. Can the EU conclude investment treaties on its own, or only together with the Member States? Can the EU’s proposed investment court system be implemented? (paragraphs 1, 2, and 3). This allows the detection of the rationale of labor provisions in the CETA (paragraph 4). In paragraph 2, in particular, it will be described the method he is using in his current investigations to comparatively evaluate quasi-similarities in the application/implementation of labor protec- tions in the involved domestic labor systems.