This panel explores the proliferation of industrial policies for a green economic transformation worldwide. These policies may intensify competition and even lead to confrontation which would disrupt global supply chains and climate, and other sustainability activities. It will identify major underlying problems and advance possible solutions.
Speakers
Dr. FANG Meng Mandy joined the City University of Hong Kong, School of Law as Assistant Professor in July 2020. Her research interests focus on the interface between international trade, environmental protection, and energy transition. Her publications appear in leading international journals such as the Virginia Journal of International Law, Leiden Journal of International Law, and other specialist journals such as World Trade Review, Journal of World Trade, Utilities Policy, Journal of World Energy Law & Business, and edited books published by Cambridge University Press, among others.
Bryan Mercurio is the Simon FS Li Professor of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Specializing in international economic law, Professor Mercurio’s work focuses on the intersection between trade law and intellectual property rights, free trade agreements, trade relations with China, trade in services and international investment law. Professor Mercurio previously taught in the faculty of law at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), worked as a trade negotiator and policy officer and practiced international trade, intellectual property and commercial law in the United States and Australia. He is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, Visiting Professor at the KDI School and a frequent consultant and advisor to governments, industry associations and law firms on a wide range of trade and investment matters.
Professor James Laurenceson is Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute at the University of Technology Sydney. His academic research has been published in leading scholarly journals including China Economic Review, China Economic Journal and Australian Journal of International Affairs. Professor Laurenceson also provides regular commentary on contemporary developments in China’s economy and the Australia-China economic and broader relationship. His opinion pieces have appeared in Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald, South China Morning Post, amongst others.
Dr Michelle Lim is an Associate Professor of Law at the Yong Pung How School of Law, Singapore Management University, Singapore. Her interdisciplinary work focuses on the law and governance of biodiversity. Michelle is Deputy Editor of the Review of European, Comparative and International Environmental Law and Deputy Chair of the Biodiversity Law Specialist Group of the IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law. She was a Fellow of the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and an author of the IPBES-IPCC Co-sponsored Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change.
Chair
Weihuan Zhou is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre at the Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney. His research explores the most current and controversial issues in the field of international economic law, particularly the nexus between international trade law and China. His latest book (with Henry Gao), published by the Cambridge University Press, offers a thorough and systemic analysis of China’s ongoing reforms of state-owned enterprises and the ways to tackle China’s state capitalism under the world trading system. His work has been cited widely, including in reports of the European Parliament, the Parliament of Australia, US Congressional Research Services and World Economic Forum. He is currently co-Secretary of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL) and editorial board member of the World Trade Review and the Journal of International Trade Law and Policy.
About CIBEL Global Network Conference 2023
Reshaping the Global Economic Governance: Opportunities and Challenges for the Asia-Pacific Region
Global economic governance typically refers to the institutional, policy and regulatory framework established by governments to facilitate and manage their interaction and engagement in global economic activities. As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a pressing need for governments to closely examine not only their own economic systems but also the global economic governance in light of the many new contexts. Numerous challenges lie ahead, including: the further rise of economic nationalism and protectionism, the persistent geopolitical confrontation between the world’s superpowers, the ever-greater fragmentation of the international legal order, the lack of progress in reforming key international institutions particularly the World Trade Organization (WTO), and difficulties and uncertainties in the pursuit of the shared goals of sustainability, inclusiveness and digitalisation. To address these challenges, international cooperation and communication is critical, with much of the collective effort increasingly focused on the Asia-Pacific region. Some recent and telling examples include the conclusion of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), the US-led negotiations of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), pioneering plurilateral and bilateral arrangements in the region such as the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement between New Zealand, Chile and Singapore and the Digital and Green Economy Agreements between Australia and Singapore, and the potential expansion of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in the region and beyond. Understanding these and other significant developments, exploring potential opportunities and challenges, and strategically and actively engaging with the Asia-Pacific region, are thus of critical importance for reshaping global economic governance for the benefit of all stakeholders.
The 2023 CIBEL Global Network Conference & Young Scholars Workshop seek to promote academic and policy debate over the major opportunities for and challenges faced by governments in reshaping their own economic systems, as well as that of the global economic governance collectively, focusing on the role and impact of the Asia-Pacific.