Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations
A summary report
This report summarizes the findings of IISD’s 2025 public consultation on Rethinking Investment Treaties. The report highlights a clear consensus among stakeholders: national investment laws should play a greater role in managing impacts of investment projects and more balanced dispute resolution models, that move beyond traditional 20th-century treaty frameworks, should be adopted.
Key Findings
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According to the consultation, the priority problems in investment governance are (a) managing negative impacts of investment projects and (b) maximizing their positive impacts—yet neither of these policy issues are the main preoccupation of the existing investment treaty regime.
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While investment treaties still matter, respondents favoured other approaches to addressing investment governance challenges. They saw national laws and working alongside treaties as the main tools for addressing today’s problems.
Following our 2024 report, "Rethinking Investment Treaties: A roadmap", the International Institute for Sustainable Development launched a public consultation on this theme between June and September 2025, seeking input on policy priorities and design for investment treaties from policy-makers, investors, experts, academics, and other members of the investment community.
The Rethinking Investment Treaties public consultation involved a two-part survey. The main survey asked the respondents to choose and rank what they considered to be the most pressing policy problems of investment governance, as well as questions about the best tools to address these issues and the potential role of treaties in solving them. The second survey was optional and designed to focus on more technical aspects of investment treaty reform.
Participating experts
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