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ABSTRACT
Private bodies involved in global regulatory governance shape and monitor economic behaviour. Their regulatory power has greatly increased over the last several decades. Thanks to an impressive apparatus of standard-setting, they have transformed economic activity. The dominance of private bodies in standard-setting has continued despite crises to which they themselves have contributed. Existing literature suggests that the State 'orchestrates' private regulatory activity, thereby retaining a high level of control. Yet, this article shows that the opposite has occurred: crises, broadly defined as disruptive events, make private bodies more resilient or generate new transnational ones. The lack of State control has ushered in a new era of private authority. Private bodies use crises as opportunities to reorganize and become more assertive in norm-creation, overriding and substituting State powers. Free from organizational hierarchies, formal accountability structures, scrutiny, pressure, and obligations, private bodies expand their regulatory domain, enhance their collective memory and identity, and grow stronger through crises. Future empirical work on the interaction between public regulatory and supervisory authorities and private rule-makers can make a difference in ensuring that private rule-making serves the public interest.

Strengthening ties with Africa has become a top priority for the current geopolitical European Commission. The focus on Africa is not new: Since 2004, the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has gradually developed a framework for political dialogue and reforms in Northern African countries, which form part of the Southern Neighbourhood. The conclusion of association agreements and free trade agreements (FTAs) at the end of the previous century brought these countries closer to the European Union (EU) in commercial terms. In February 2021, the EU launched a renewed agenda for the South Mediterranean with a view to integrating these economies further to the EU edifice. Against this backdrop, this Article discusses how economic integration manifests itself in the region. It further pinpoints the economic fundamentals and political realities that will shape further economic integration between the EU and Northern Africa. A central element of EU's renewed strategy in the region is the conclusion of deep and comprehensive free trade agreements (DCFTAs) with Northern African countries. It is argued that the conclusion of such agreements will constitute a litmus test for EU's new assertive approach in trade matters in line with the newly adopted concept of open strategic autonomy.
European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), Southern Neighbourhood, Northern Africa, EU trade policy, EU foreign policy, strategic autonomy, deep and comprehensive free trade agreements (DCFTAs), South Mediterranean, economic integration

ABSTRACT
The mushrooming of special economic zones (SEZs) in recent years has led to a significant increase in the supply of attractive incentives for investors looking for opportunities abroad. Special economic zones are self-contained regimes, inextricably associated with investment promotion policies and domestic industrial policy in general, that many times form part of a broader strategic governmental planning that aims at experimenting with economic rule-making in strictly defined territorial and jurisdictional boundaries. While empirical evidence is still inconclusive, special economic zones can contribute to economic development at the domestic level through a varying degree of channels. This is even more the case with services-only special economic zones, a new phenomenon that exemplifies the rising importance of trade in services but also the 'servicification trend' that drives global economic activity. Against this background, this article examines the case of services in special economic zones and offers a tour d'horizon of the current services-related special economic zone landscape. Furthermore, the article critically reviews the patterns, traits, and limits of trade in financial services within special economic zones and discusses the relevance of the General Agreement on Trade in Services at this juncture. It concludes with a discussion of potential development-related benefits ensuing from trade in financial services within special economic zones.

Trade regulation may never have been in more flux than it is nowadays. Apart from the emergence of 'megaregionals' (more recently, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership – RCEP, or the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-pacific Partnership–CPTPP) and the difficulties in pursuing the objectives of the Doha Development Agenda, the increased heterogeneity of interests within the World Trade Organization (WTO) puts into question its ability to achieve its central objective of free(r) trade. While internally rethinking the future of the WTO, it seems opportune to discuss, and factor in the realities of everyday global trade. To this end, this Article argues that the stateless reality of commercial transactions requires that state-driven, trade-related rule-making and stateless rule-making should be analysed in tandem if we are to make any sense of how global trade works and evolves. It further advocates a new theory of global trade-enablinglaw that focuses on a critical review of all rules that aim to mitigate legal risks of economic actors when they partake in transboundary commercial activities. This theory would emerge from a norm-user perspective that focuses on the functionality of the law. Global trade law-related research should focus on and evolve around three, broadly-defined axes: first, the identification and critical review of a set of principles akin to the global law advocacy; second, the analysis of the phenomenon of the empowerment of non-State constituencies, including firms, and a more intensive bridge-building with not only the semiautonomous regimes of transnational private regulators but also with other international organizations (IOs) (be it governmental, non-governmental or hybrid), whose activities have an impact on commercial transactions; and, third, the intensification of the still scattered, unsuccessful efforts to create a more inclusive global trading system brimming with development opportunities for all. Action in these three areas shall determine the sustainability and resilience of global trade law.

The only partial completion of the EU internal market for services has arguably been one of the important stumbling blocks in unleashing economic growth throughout the Union. While being regarded as an outlier for decades, the freedom to provide services came to the forefront after a series of studies underlining the economic benefits of further services liberalization within the EU. In this regard, the Services Directive has been the controversial reaction of the EU legislature to this quest for a new 'integration boost'. An initially central piece of the Lisbon Strategy, the Directive aims at the elimination of the remaining legal barriers to the achievement of the internal market for services, while ensuring legal certainty for service suppliers and consumers. The Directive operationalizes Articles 49 and 56 TFEU and, in several respects, consolidates six decades of case law delivered by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). This article offers a succinct account of the services-related integration story within the EU. It reviews 60 years of services-related case law, including the first 10 years after the adoption of the Services Directive and its first enforcement period. In this respect, it will argue that the Directive constitutes, along with EU primary law, an additional legal instrument to be used by the CJEU judges with a view to further pursuing the objectives of the internal market even at the domestic level. The second important level that the Directive operates relates to the transparency-enhancing and mutual-trust-building benefits from the implementation of the Directive. On a pessimistic tone, then, the article submits that the Directive will not serve as a vector for completing the single market in services anytime soon. In the end, its effectiveness will depend on the Member States' discretion and the capacity of national regulators to build trust for the benefit of intra-EU mobility of service suppliers despite regulatory competition within the EU.

In the absence of the country of origin principle and thus quasi-automatic mutual recognition, the creation of codes of conduct (CoC) at a European level as an alternative, soft-law method of rule-making acquires new dynamics. CoC are an example of self-regulation by associations of undertakings. CoC, while voluntary, soft-law instruments, are considered as partaking in the effort to increase the 'awareness of Europeanness'; pursue legitimate objectives that are accepted as valid at EU level; and ultimately guarantee a high level of quality commensurate with the ever-increasing expectations of the EU citizens with a view to enhancing trust among MS as to the equivalence of services and service suppliers originating in other MS. Such rules of conduct, which are typically adopted by non-state bodies (professional associations) when they exercise their legal autonomy, can hinder the intra-EU free movement of professionals. Hence, liberalization of factor mobility enshrined in primary and secondary EU law can be jeopardized by the adoption and application of such codes, which are also foreseen in the Services Directive.
This paper aims to explore the impact of CoC on further liberalizing professional services within the EU. It critically reviews the soft-law approach adopted by the EU in this area. Finally, the paper analyses the possible content of such CoC and its compatibility with EU law, notably the rules on free movement and competition.