Duygu YAYGIR

It has been generally thought that having natural resource endowments play key role in the economic and political development of states due to the privilege that they are leading to their owner states since they can increase wealth and purchasing power over imports, so that resource abundance might be expected to raise an economy's investment and growth rates as well. However, most of the natural resource-endowed countries can easily refute the general perception with their poor economic and political performance. Many studies have proved that most countries whose economies are based on oil, mineral and other natural resources have experienced slower growth rates than those having less natural resource.

The concept of foreign direct investment (FDI) was introduced in Turkey as of the year 2003 with the FDI Law no. 4875 even though there had been a former legislation to promote and encourage foreign capital since the end of 1950s. The legal concept that the new FDI Law has brought, is the result of the increasing need of encouraging foreign investments taking into account of global requirements and changing role of Turkey in global economy.
Through this paper, evolutionary structure of Turkish legislative acts concerning foreign investments is to be analyzed from the Law Concerning the Encouragement of Foreign Capital dated 1954 until the Foreign Direct Investment Law dated 2003. The motivations that influenced Turkish laws as well as difficulties behind this evolutionary process will be laid down taking into account of domestic and global conditions during their preparation. Then, a detailed legal comparison between the old and new legislation is to be made so as to demonstrate the sharp level of liberalization in Turkey regarding foreign direct investment policy in the last 50 years. Furthermore, the special problems and challenges regarding this Law will also be laid down.
Additionally, by referring to some theoretical works on the role of law in fostering foreign investment, the role of the new Foreign Direct Investment Law as well as BITs signed by Turkey in its attraction of FDI in the last decade is to be analyzed. Lastly, this paper examines the possible lessons that the Turkish experience has for other countries.

This contribution analyses the comprehensive chemicals legislation implemented by the European Union (EU) since 1st June 2007, known as REACH Regulation, from the perspective of WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement. The focus of this study is to investigate certain aspects of REACH, which are likely to be subject to WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). Thus, first of all, the thesis lays down the objectives and main procedures of the REACH with respect to registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction. Second, it examines the ongoing discussions and main concerns of WTO member states regarding REACH under TBT Committee Meetings. Lastly, it asks which of these concerns might be brought to WTO DSB in the future and to what extent they might be defended under TBT Agreement. This preliminary analysis concludes that even though EU seems to be in a strong position due to its high level of aim known as human health and environment protection, the compatibility of some requirements of REACH with TBT Agreement might still be questioned seriously.