The concept of national security and public order in the screening of foreign direct investments

Abstract

A comprehensive study of the content of national security and public order as key compo­nents of the foreign direct investment screening procedure has been carried out. The research interest in this topic is due to the fact that the degree of detail and, in general, the approaches to defining the concepts of national security and public order in legislative acts demonstrate not only a reflection of geopolitical considerations, but also a balance found between the public interest – the effectiveness of screening – and the private interest – the freedom of investment and entrepreneurial activity. The hypothesis of this study is that the concepts of national security and public order in the context of FDI screening are dynamic, and their legislative definitions should be detailed enough to ensure the effectiveness of the FDI screening mechanism. To test the hypothesis, the author outlines the caveats for national security and public order reasons, as well as the principles of their application in inter­national law, highlights the doctrinal approaches to the classification of threats to national security and public order, analyses the approaches of the USA and China, and the EU regulatory framework for FDI screening. The conclusions provide a concep­tual vision of the dynamics of defining the content of national security and public order in relation to FDI screening, and proposes approaches to defining the criteria for FDI screening in future Ukrainian legislation.