Investment Policy Best Practices Advisory Bulletins

Drawing on public treaty texts and different model investment agreements produced by governments, IISD’s Best Practices Series analyzes the evolving scope and nature of investment treaty negotiations, in particular from the developing country and sustainable development perspectives. 

These bulletins are based on a review of a vast number of investment treaties and chapters in trade agreements, as well as case law interpreting treaty provisions. The series provides both developing and developed country negotiators with state-of-the-art options and approaches to address the new issues and controversies in investment negotiations. By doing so, IISD hopes to level the playing field in international investment negotiations and ensure access to the latest thinking and approaches.

Some of the key issues where new treaty texts are showing interesting developments directly related to sustainable development are:

• The development of provisions preserving government policy space to protect the environment and the social development objectives of sustainable development
• Provisions defining the scope of rules on expropriation in relation to government regulations
• Statements on the scope of the fair and equitable treatment standard under investment law and its relation to new government measures for environmental protection and social development
• New provisions on investor responsibilities that have begun to emerge (from complex models to simple statements on compliance with local laws)
• New institutional developments in regional agreements
• The scope and functioning of the investor–state dispute settlement process under international investment agreements.