Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations

This report summarizes the results of a 2025 public consultation conducted by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to identify pressing policy problems in international investment governance and determine the ideal tools—such as national laws or treaties—to address them.

• Respondents identified the most pressing policy problems of investment governance as the negative impacts of investment projects and lack of investor accountability, ensuring positive impacts of foreign investment (such as decent jobs and new technologies), and issues related to attracting sustainable investment. Traditional treaty focuses, specifically investment protection and dispute settlement, did not rank highly.
• National laws were overwhelmingly viewed as the ideal tools for addressing the top-ranked policy priorities, including attracting sustainable investment, ensuring positive impacts, and managing negative impacts of projects. Treaties were seen as ideal primarily for solving issues of international cooperation and establishing investment dispute settlement, resolution, and management.
• Regarding dispute settlement, respondents expressed a need to reform the current investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime. Suggested alternatives include replacing ISDS with state-to-state dispute settlement, narrowing access to ISDS, increasing the use of mediation, and establishing a standing tribunal to hold investors accountable for misconduct.
• When considering the general functions of treaties, the most useful roles identified were addressing collective action problems, creating mechanisms for dispute prevention and enforcement, and placing rights and obligations on states.
• In a follow-up survey on sustainable investment, respondents suggested treaties could support these goals by imposing sustainable-development-related investor obligations, defining what constitutes sustainable investment, and strengthening national legal frameworks (e.g., by incorporating standards like the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative).
• To scale up renewable energy, the top three roles for treaties identified were encouraging international cooperation between treaty parties, multilateral development banks (MDBs), and the private sector; incentivizing investment in energy infrastructure; and addressing the regulatory environment in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs).
• The most favored treaty compliance mechanisms are independent non-adjudicatory compliance review mechanisms, self-assessment and reporting, and international courts or tribunals.

APA

Ostřanský, J., & Manikantan, A. (2026). Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf

Chicago

Ostřanský, Josef, and Abhishree Manikantan. Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2026. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ostřanský |first1=Josef |last2=Manikantan |first2=Abhishree |title=Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2026 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ostansk2026rethinking, author = {Ostřanský, Josef and Manikantan, Abhishree}, title = {{Rethinking Investment Treaties Public Consultations}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2026}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2026-03/rethinking-investment-treaties-public-consultations.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }