This introductory chapter situates the book within existing debates about the effects of investment treaties on national governance. The book’s methodology and conceptual framework in socio-legal and ethnographic approaches to law is described, and the typology of investment treaties’ impact on national governance used in the book explained: ideological-discursive effects and formal-institutional effects. Finally, the structure of the book is outlined.

The asteroid 101955 Bennu is just a pile of rubble, weakly held together by its own gravity, the remnants of a catastrophic event that occurred a billion years ago. But Bennu is also a bearer of both life and death, containing clues about the origins of life on Earth while, at the same time, having the potential to destroy humanity. For over time, the agencies of physics and chance have brought the 500-metre-wide asteroid onto an orbit very near to Earth.

Until recently, those wanting to escape the effects of terrestrial light pollution could leave cities and travel to the countryside to observe the night sky. But increasingly there is nowhere, and therefore no way, to escape the pollution from the thousands of satellites being launched each year. ‘Mega-constellations’ composed of thousands or even tens of thousands of satellites are designed to provide low-cost, low-latency, high-bandwidth Internet around the world. This chapter outlines how the application of the ‘consumer electronic product model’ to satellites could lead to multiple tragedies of the commons, from the loss of access to certain orbits because of space debris, to changes to the chemistry of Earth’s upper atmosphere, to increased dangers on Earth’s surface from re-entered satellite components. Mega-constellations require a shift in perspectives and policies. Instead of looking at single satellites, we need to evaluate systems of thousands of satellites, launched by multiple states and companies, all operating within a shared ecosystem.

This chapter centres on the economic and political climate of the period in which the selected countries concluded their first investment treaties. This period coincides with the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, when, as a result of the end of the Cold War, states across the globe adopted trade and investment liberalisation policies, increased property protections, and promoted liberal legal internationalism. It does so through four country snapshots. It then discusses the political debate regarding IIAs at the highest political level – in national parliaments – and in the media. When it comes to the debates in national parliaments, four themes emerged: (1) general lack of substantive parliamentary engagement; (2) belief that foreign investment was sufficiently protected under national laws; (3) substantive engagement on issues related to free transfers; and (4) more pronounced discussion when the investment connected with trade liberalisation, such was the case of Mexico. Regarding the media debate, the period of the conclusion of the first international investment agreements (IIAs) shows an almost total absence of reporting and media engagement.

Space tourism began in 2001 when an American investment manager paid the Russian space agency US$20 million to travel to the International Space Station on a Soyuz rocket. In 2021, three US-based companies began launching tourists on their own rockets: Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin and SpaceX. The emergence of Space tourism raises difficult issues. One such issue is the environmental effects of launches on the atmosphere and the corresponding implications for climate change. Space tourism also raises difficult questions of international law, including, where does space begin? Who gets to call themselves an ‘astronaut’? Do states have a duty to rescue tourists stranded in space?

The chapter focuses on how IIAs have impacted relations in public administrations through institutional rearrangements. First, we analyse how the intervention of IIAs influenced relations between different state agencies at the central level. Here, we look mainly at central state agencies’ struggles over the IIA portfolio and the attendant budgetary repercussions. Second, we look at how the IIAs impact the relations between the central agencies and their counterparts at the levels of individual states, provinces, and municipalities. This part deals with the management of the support for foreign investment projects and issues connected with ISDS management and defence. We highlight the related budgetary politics as well. Regardless of the variations, one element arises from all of the studied states: the gradual side-lining of the traditional actors tasked with international diplomacy in favour of more sectoral expert actors that base their expertise on the considerations of trade, commerce, finance, and the economy. It also became evident that the practices of centralisation, executive rule, and discourses that put a premium on the economic considerations of efficiency and competition have been preferred by the centre to rein in provinces.

The concluding chapter summarises the findings of the book and discusses their import. We highlight the constraining and empowering dynamics of IIAs in national governance and how they may influence the designing of more innovative and emancipatory economic policies, especially given the necessary transition to a green economy. We highlight some of the issues that developing countries, in particular, may want to consider.