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.

Susanne Staschen-Dielmann’s history episode is designed to offer learners deep understanding and command of a specific historical genre. Criteria-centred evaluation is one of the most challenging text types to master in history. It requires the ability to analyse and evaluate historical events from different perspectives in a nuanced way through a set of criteria. A series of tasks leads to students creating instructional videos for other students. In those videos, students explore aspects of society in the German Empire guided by the research question: ‘After unifying the German Reich with “blood and iron” in 1871, did Bismarck manage to unify German society as a nation?’ After sharing their findings on different social and political factions and analysing similarities and differences according to social, political, economic and ideological positions, learners collaboratively assess the degree of national unity or disunity in Germany under Bismarck, following the principles of criteria-centred evaluation.