The relationship between investors and the Rule of Law-crisis in the EU : A political reform worth lobbying for?

Sammanfattning: The EU is currently in a rule of law-crisis because certain Member States have made political reforms to their judicial institutions which inhibit the independence of national courts and the impartiality of their court rulings. Both surveys and theoretical assumptions suggest that a strong rule of law is important for foreign investors, and even more important to intra-EU investors because of a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union banning alternative means of dispute settlement. This should theoretically make investors attempt to lobby for rule of law-reform in these backsliding Member States. Since this is not happening, this thesis questions why that is. Considering the large scale institutionalization of lobbying-activity at the EU-level there are certainly no formal barriers preventing foreign investors from pushing for reform. Using historical research on business and investor behavior, the findings of this thesis suggest that investors do not value a strong rule of law nearly as high as the surveys and theoretical assumptions hypothesize it and that there is in fact a high threshold for when a weak rule of law would make them reconsider their investments.