The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds on the Regulation of Foreign Direct investment in Strategic Industries: a Comparative View

摘要

Investments by sovereign wealth funds - pools of capital accumulated by and under the control of sovereign states, mostly from the Persian Gulf and East Asia - in European and North American companies have changed dramatically both in scope and in nature in the last few years. As the investors in question are sovereigns, these recent changes have stirred up the long-standing debate between protectionism versus free-market approaches towards foreign direct investment and have propelled states with screening mechanisms for the review of such investments to re-evaluate and bolster these mechanisms. This article focuses on the United States, France and India and, for each jurisdiction, examines: (1) the governing law and recent changes thereto; (2) the screening mechanisms including (i) the composition of the review body, (ii) key concepts, (iii) the industries subject to review, and (iv) key features of the review process; and (3) recent deals or public controversies.