{"id":7045,"date":"2016-05-16T03:04:20","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T08:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iisd.org\/itn\/?p=7045"},"modified":"2024-08-09T18:26:51","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T16:26:51","slug":"switzerlands-investment-treaties-time-for-a-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/2016\/05\/16\/switzerlands-investment-treaties-time-for-a-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Switzerland\u2019s Investment Treaties: Time for a change"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><em>By Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Published by <span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips32'>IISD<\/span>, April 2016<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>Switzerland currently has signed 118 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with countries around the world, primarily developing countries or countries in transition. Worried about the effects on democratic policy-making\u2014particularly states\u2019 ability to protect the public interest\u2014many governments are reviewing and revising their approach to these treaties. Despite some concerns raised by the Swiss parliament in the past years, Switzerland has so far introduced only timid changes in its recent investment treaties, and its approach to negotiations has remained in large part unchanged in the last decades. This is probably due to the fact that Switzerland has largely been untouched by disputes under these treaties. However, there is reason to expect more cases against Switzerland in the future, as capital flows from traditional investment treaty partners into Switzerland increase. This paper explains the concerns attached to traditional investment treaties\u2014the type of treaties that Switzerland has so many of\u2014and the various ways that countries have adapted their approach as a result. It argues that now is the time for Switzerland to begin updating its approach to investment treaties. Available at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iisd.org\/topic\/investment\">http:\/\/www.<span class='tooltipsall tooltipsincontent classtoolTips33'>IISD<\/span>.org\/topic\/investment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<!--more--><\/p>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips32','International Institute for Sustainable Development<!--more-->'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips33','Institut international du d\u00e9veloppement durable'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips34','Instituto Internacional para el Desarrollo Sostenible'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips63','Bilateral investment treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips67','Energy Charter Treaty'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips110','inversi\u00f3n extranjera directa'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips116','European Commission'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips118','Union europ\u00e9enne'); <\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips119','Uni\u00f3n Europea'); <\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This paper explains the concerns attached to traditional investment treaties\u2014the type of treaties that Switzerland has so many of\u2014and the various ways that countries have adapted their approach as a result.<script type=\"text\/javascript\"> toolTips('.classtoolTips106','asociaci\u00f3n p\u00fablica-privada'); <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15869,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[417],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iisd.org\/itn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}