As the editors of this volume observe in their Introduction, the idea of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) sprouted during president Huâs term when the first seeds for the economic reintegration of Eurasia were planted in 2012 with the establishment of the Group 16+1 aiming at bridging China with Central and Eastern Europe. It is also important to remind that President Xi officially put forth the BRI in 2013, first in Kazakhstan regarding the land-oriented Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB), and subsequently in Indonesia regarding the sea-oriented Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Road (21MSR). Key points of the BRI were further specified by the Chinese government in the âVision and Actions on jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and Twenty-first Century Maritime Silk Roadâ released in 2015. That same year commenced operations the New Development Bank (NDB) and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) meant to financially support infrastructure projects including BRI-related projects.
The development of new infrastructure will divert trade flows to new corridors, shifting the world centre of economic gravity and creating new centres of international economic activities in a more multipolar world. Many regions will swap their places in global chains of value and production. Many currently peripheral and protectionist jurisdictions will have to face new challenges of trade facilitation, protection of foreign investment, sustainability and transparency of international trade and investment projects, as a result of increased trade flows. Policymakers along BRI-routes will have to respond to a combination of intrinsically linked geopolitical, economic and legal challenges.
BRI-routes go beyond existing railway connections crossing the New Eurasian Land Bridge. They also include a number of corridors such as Northern Sea Route (NSR), China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) or China-Central and West Asia Economic Corridor (CCWAEC) etc., crossing nearly 70 countries and bypassing well-established trade hubs. While the New Eurasian Land Bridge is believed to reverse the consequences of the Age of Discovery and Great Divergence in the income distribution between West and East, the BRI in its entirety might have even more profound ramification for the global division of labour.
Such reshuffle will undoubtedly will bring about tensions, controversies and disputes in various configurations between governments as well as state-controlled or private enterprises. A complex dispute settlement system shall
Julien Chaisse and JÄdrzej Górski have assembled a coherent, academically solid and impressive collection of chapters which provide a thorough and perceptive analysis of the BRI. This book constitutes a piece of research and a useful tool to understand a complex developmental strategy like BRI. It is an analysis that is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the future of international economic law and policy and, beyond that, the future of international economic governance.
Professor Zhang Yuejiao (Faculty of Law, Tsinghua University)
Beijing, 18 May 2018