Transparency in the Dispute Settlement Process: Country best practices

This guide provides an overview of how countries are incorporating transparency provisions into investor-state dispute settlement processes to address the historical lack of public access to information regarding arbitration disputes.

• A historical lack of transparency in investor-state arbitrations—where it is often difficult to identify if a dispute has started or what the outcomes were—is not a treaty requirement but a result of treaties being silent on transparency and confidentiality.
• In response to growing concerns over the last decade, states have started taking direct control by including specific transparency provisions within their treaties.
• The document examines transparency approaches in regional arrangements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) investment agreement, as well as individual agreements from Canada, the United States, Chile, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand.

APA

Johnson,, N. B.-O. (2011). Transparency in the Dispute Settlement Process: Country best practices. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/transparency-dispute-settlement-process-country-best-practices

Chicago

Johnson,, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder,Lise. Transparency in the Dispute Settlement Process: Country best practices. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2011. https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/transparency-dispute-settlement-process-country-best-practices.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Johnson, |first1=Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder,Lise |title=Transparency in the Dispute Settlement Process: Country best practices |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=19 December 2011 |url=https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/transparency-dispute-settlement-process-country-best-practices |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{johnson2011transparency, author = {Johnson,, Nathalie Bernasconi-Osterwalder,Lise}, title = {{Transparency in the Dispute Settlement Process: Country best practices}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2011}, month = dec, url = {https://www.iisd.org/publications/guide/transparency-dispute-settlement-process-country-best-practices}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }