Can International Investment Agreements Advance the SDGs?

International Investment Agreements (IIAs) were designed to increase the flows of foreign investment among nations in order to achieve economic development. IIAs, in the form of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or investment chapters to broader free trade agreements, pursued this goal by providing assurances to foreign investors that their rights would be respected and if not, they would be able to bring arbitral claims against their host states for treaty violations. While IIAs proliferated in the 1990s, they have since faced a torrent of criticisms as the promised benefits of deregulation, the protection of foreign-owned property, and ‘freed’ capital flows failed to materialize. IIAs and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) are now in the midst of reforms, touted by UNCTAD and UNCITRAL, that seek a ‘re-balancing’ that would restore states’ ‘right to regulate’ vis-à-vis foreign investors’ treaty protections. At the same time, the needs for foreign investment that IIAs were supposed to address have never been greater. According to UNCTAD, the UN’s Development Agenda, premised on achieving 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, is under severe challenge given a 4 trillion dollar annual gap in capital needed to achieve those SDGs -- from ending hunger to preventing or mitigating climate change.

Professor José E. Alvarez, from New York University will analise in his lecture whether the IIAs can advance the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.