Between protection of strategic sectors and protectionism: Regulations on foreign persons in a comparative outlook

Abstract

The article focuses on protecting strategic assets from being acquired by foreign capital. The main idea of the article is to differentiate protectionism as an economic doctrine from the legitimate protec-tion of vital sectors of the economy from the perspective of state functioning. The article begins with a short introduction of the current state of international relations, which gives grounds to discuss the limitations of investment and trade introduced within the legal systems of the USA, China, and mem-ber states of the EU. The author stresses the importance of defining phrases like protectionism, stra-tegic sectors and foreign persons. The main part of the text focuses on currently effective regulations, as well as legal instruments that have been recently introduced by the above-mentioned countries.