Investment Law & Policy

We examine how to improve the laws, policies, and institutions that govern investment; create platforms for collaboration and peer learning among partners, policy-makers, and experts; and advance concrete solutions based on our independent research. The team follows a 2-track change strategy, combining the long-term rethinking of international investment governance, in line with current and future global challenges, with short-term practical solutions to address the most urgent issues of the current regime. 

IISD' flagship journal, Investment Treaty News has brought new analysis and ideas on investment governance and sustainable development to a global readership for 25 years.

Rethinking Investment Governance

Our team is at the forefront of global efforts to rethink international investment governance across the main investment instruments—manifested in our publications on the rethinking of investment treaties, investment laws, and investor-state contracts. The overarching objective of this project is to better align investment with the public interest and channel financial flows toward the world's urgent sustainable development challenges—from accelerating the climate transition, fair and equitable economic development, and critical infrastructure, to advancing education, strengthening public health, and empowering local communities.

This includes moving away from the old investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) model under investment treaties and contracts; we set out why it is urgent and how all investment stakeholders can contribute to the reform in this Q&A brief.

We regularly engage with academia and media—including news outlets, such as Financial Times and the Guardian, and specialized outlets, such as Law360 and Inside Climate News—to inform the conversation and advance political momentum for change.

Investment Policy Forum: Enabling bottom-up reform

IISD is the founder and host organization of the Investment Policy Forum—a unique event, founded in 2007, that brings together investment policy-makers from developing countries across the world to share knowledge and experiences, strategize around common issues and solutions, and map out mid- and long-term investment governance reform.

Between the IPFs, we provide tailored, on-demand workshops, training, and advisory services to policy-makers from developing and emerging economies across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean—raising awareness, providing practical tools and platforms for collaborations, and advising on policy solutions.

In 2026, we launched a bespoke research series on the China's flagship overseas investment and development program, the Belt and Road Initiative, unpacking its shifting priorities, distinct legal framework, and unique opportunities and challenges for emerging and developing economies.

Advancing International and Regional Reform

We leverage our roles as formal observer, trusted partner, and key stakeholder across a range of regional and international processes to support investment reform for sustainable development. 

At the heart of our multilateral engagement is our observer membership of the United Nations Conference on International Trade Law multilateral initiative for ISDS reform (the so-called UNCITRAL Working Group III), where we support a positive outcome through session-by-session analyses, bespoke research, submissions to the Secretariat, side events, and technical support to developing country delegations.

We are also part of the Task Force drafting the Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Investment Protocol, an innovative and potentially transformative Africa-wide investment agreement. 

This role is based on our long-running work on the reform of investment instruments across Africa's regional bodies, including the Investment Agreement for the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA CCIA), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and Protocol on Finance and Investment (FIP), the Economic Community of West African States Common Investment Code (ECOWIC), and the East African Community (EAC) model BIT. 

In Europe, we play a leading role in reforming the region's energy investment governance and removing one of its main remaining climate transition obstacles—the Energy Charter Treaty, including its sunset clause—through original research, legal and policy solutions, public and media awareness-raising, and engagement with officials and politicians.

In addition, IISD's Investment team engages in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s work program on the Future of Investment Treaties and is a member of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Multi-Stakeholder Platform on International Investment Agreement Reform as well as the World Investment for Development Alliance.