L’extinction des traités bilatéraux d’investissement

This guide by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) examines the increasing trend of states terminating old-generation bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to reform investment regimes. It details the legal mechanisms for termination under international law, analyzes common termination and survival clauses, and provides recommendations for states on how to manage the extinction of these treaties and draft new ones.

• There is a growing global trend of states terminating old-generation bilateral investment treaties (BITs) due to a perception that the investment treaty regime is unbalanced and unsuitable. In 2017, the number of effective terminations (22) exceeded the number of new treaties signed (18) for the first time, with at least 24 terminations occurring in 2018 and a total of 309 by the end of 2019.
• BIT termination is governed by customary international law, specifically the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). Under Article 54 of the VCLT, a treaty can be terminated either according to its own provisions or at any time by the consent of all parties.
• Two primary models of termination clauses dominate BITs: 'tacit renewal' (reconduction tacite) and 'fixed term' (durée déterminée). Tacit renewal clauses automatically extend the treaty unless a party provides notice within a short window (often six months), while fixed-term clauses allow termination at any time after an initial period, typically requiring one year's notice. UNCTAD mapping indicates over 60% of treaties use fixed-term clauses and just over 20% use tacit renewal.
• Survival clauses (sunset clauses) allow a BIT to continue producing legal effects for a set period after termination, typically applying to investments made before the termination date. This allows investors to initiate international arbitration during the survival period. Common durations are 10 years (56% of UNCTAD mapped treaties) and 15 years (20%).
• States employ various strategies for termination: mutual consent with renegotiation (e.g., Australia replacing BITs with Hong Kong and Uruguay), mutual consent without replacement (e.g., the Czech Republic terminating intra-EU BITs), or unilateral termination (e.g., Ecuador terminating 9 BITs in 2008 and 16 in 2017; Indonesia terminating BITs with 25 states between 2014 and 2017).
• Neutralizing or shortening survival clauses generally requires the consent of both parties, as unilateral termination of a treaty does not automatically authorize the unilateral removal of the survival clause. Recent practices show states reducing survival periods to three or five years or eliminating them entirely in new agreements, such as the 2016 Morocco-Nigeria BIT.

APA

Bernasconi-Osterwalder, N., & Brewin, S. (2020). L’extinction des traités bilatéraux d’investissement. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/terminating-treaty-best-practices-fr.pdf

Chicago

Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Nathalie, and Sarah Brewin. L’extinction des traités bilatéraux d’investissement. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2020. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/terminating-treaty-best-practices-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bernasconi-Osterwalder |first1=Nathalie |last2=Brewin |first2=Sarah |title=L’extinction des traités bilatéraux d’investissement |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=March 2020 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/terminating-treaty-best-practices-fr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bernasconiosterwalder2020lextinction, author = {Bernasconi-Osterwalder, Nathalie and Brewin, Sarah}, title = {{L’extinction des traités bilatéraux d’investissement}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2020}, month = mar, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/terminating-treaty-best-practices-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }