Geopolitical Risks and Geoeconomics in International Economic Law
The rules-based international economic order is undergoing profound transformation. Geopolitical risk and geoeconomic strategy are no longer external shocks to a stable system; they now shape the core of international economic law (IEL), influencing trade regulation, investment protection, digital governance, and supply-chain design. Tariffs, sanctions, investment screening, data controls, and security-driven regulation have become structural features of the global economy.
This edited volume originates from the 9th Asian International Economic Law Network (AIELN) Conference, held in Tokyo in June 2025 under the theme “Geopolitical Risks and Geoeconomics in International Economic Law: Asian Perspectives and Beyond.” It brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how IEL is responding to persistent geopolitical uncertainty and regulatory risk.
The chapters analyze how legal frameworks allocate the costs of geopolitical and regulatory risk, whether the liberal trading system is fragmenting into regional or minilateral arrangements, and how security, resilience, and sustainability are reshaping market access and investment governance. A central question is whether international economic law can adapt to these pressures without abandoning rule-based multilateralism.
Placing Asia at the center of the analysis, the volume explores whether Asian states can move beyond being objects of great-power strategies and instead act as norm entrepreneurs shaping the future of international economic law.
Junji Nakagawa is a Professor at the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Chuo Gakuin University. He is also a Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo. He is Of Counsel at Anderson, Mori & Tomotsune. He received his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. Before assuming the current positions, he was a Professor of International Economic Law at the Institute of Social Science at the University of Tokyo. He is a Chairperson of the Asia International Economic Law Network (AIELN). His research covers a wide range of public international law regulating transnational economic transactions. His major recent publications include: A Post-WTO International Legal Order, Springer, 2020; Asian Perspectives on International Investment Law, Routledge, 2019; Nationalization, Natural Resource and International Investment Law, Routledge, 2017; and International Harmonization of Economic Regulation, Oxford University Press, 2011.
Taro Hamada is Professor at the Faculty of Law at Senshu University, Japan. He previously served at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and at the Permanent Mission of Japan in Geneva, where he was responsible for WTO and EPA negotiations. He examines the evolving legal and institutional frameworks that govern global trade, with particular attention to how states balance economic integration, domestic regulatory autonomy, and the protection of workers. His recent publications include International Law and the Global Economy, co-ed., Shinzan-sha, 2021, in Japanese; “International Trade and Labor” in International Economic Law, 31, 2022, in Japanese; and “Are Korea’s Import Bans on Japanese Foods Based on Scientific Principles?”, co-author, in European Journal of Risk Regulation, 11(1), 2020.
Yoshimichi Ishikawa is Associate Professor at the School of International Relations at the University of Shizuoka, Japan. Before entering academia, he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, working on WTO dispute settlement. He received his PhD in Law from the University of Bern, Switzerland, where he completed his dissertation, International Trade in Food after a Nuclear Accident, with the distinction of magna cum laude. His research focuses on evidence-based analysis of international trade regulation, with particular interest in the quantification of risk and the design of effective risk governance frameworks. He currently serves as a Board Member of the Japanese Society of International Economic Law.
