Repenser les traités d’investissement

This executive summary argues that the current international investment treaty regime is often ineffective and suggests a fundamental rethink of its purpose. The authors propose that treaties should shift from focusing on investor protection to supporting sustainable investment, ensuring positive social and environmental impacts, and solving collective action problems in global governance. Key recommendations include prioritizing national laws for regulation, limiting treaty protections to sustainable investments, and using international frameworks to tackle high capital costs in developing countries and the phase-out of fossil fuel investments.

• The authors argue that treaties have a limited role in encouraging sustainable investment, as states can remove restrictions on green technologies through national laws without needing international agreements.
• Investment treaties may be useful for indirect promotion of sustainable investment by creating international cooperation platforms to address collective action issues, such as subsidies or the high cost of borrowing in developing nations.
• Due to the inefficiency and high costs of current protection mechanisms, the document suggests that if states continue to provide treaty-based protection, it should be restricted to sustainable investments and limited to preventing opportunistic state behavior.
• National law should be the primary level of regulation for the social and environmental impacts of foreign investments; treaties should be complementary and explicitly require investors to comply with host-state laws.
• Treaties should be designed to enhance the host state's ability to benefit from sustainable investment by facilitating technology transfers and decent job creation, rather than hindering national development policies through prohibitions on performance requirements.
• International treaties can address global governance failures by coordinating the phase-out of fossil fuel investments, ending supporting public subsidies, and establishing funds for a just energy transition.
• To improve investment governance, treaties should support national frameworks for transparency, anti-corruption, and access to justice, specifically by improving legal systems for civil and tort liability when investors fail to meet obligations.

APA

Ostřanský, J., & Bonnitcha, J. (2024). Repenser les traités d’investissement. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-05/rethinking-investment-treaties-roadmap-summary-fr.pdf

Chicago

Ostřanský, Josef, and Jonathan Bonnitcha. Repenser les traités d’investissement. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2024. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-05/rethinking-investment-treaties-roadmap-summary-fr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ostřanský |first1=Josef |last2=Bonnitcha |first2=Jonathan |title=Repenser les traités d’investissement |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=May 2024 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-05/rethinking-investment-treaties-roadmap-summary-fr.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ostansk2024repenser, author = {Ostřanský, Josef and Bonnitcha, Jonathan}, title = {{Repenser les traités d’investissement}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2024}, month = may, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/2024-05/rethinking-investment-treaties-roadmap-summary-fr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }