International Investment Law and Sustainable Development

International investment law deals with the protection of foreign investments and aims to promote development and to protect foreign investments at the same time. It is widely acknowledged that foreign investment is necessary to achieve sustainable development. State parties concluding investment protection treaties always aim to foster economic development. Only more recently, concerns for sustainable development have led to the inclusion of language into investment protection treaties that aims to integrate goals of investment protection and sustainable development. International investment protection and sustainable development share the common goal to have a rule of law based international system that provides a solid legal basis for investments that have as their ultimate goal (sustainable) development. Out of the many aspects that are relevant in the context of investment law and sustainable development this contribution presents the more recent investment treaty practice that contains explicit links and references to sustainable development or certain aspects thereof like protection of the environment, labor standards or human rights related provisions and provisions against corruption. Furthermore, this contribution illustrates methods tribunals have developed in their decisions to consider sustainable development-related aspects through the interpretation of existing treaties that lack explicit references to sustainable development. Finally, the contribution deals with the case law on renewable energy disputes and national regulatory policies. It does so to illustrate how tribunals developed criteria in the assessment of the expropriation provision and the fair and equitable treatment standard that allow States to benefit from their required regulatory space and provide at the same time for the necessary regulatory stability to foster investment necessary to achieve sustainable development goals