This IIA Issues Note presents and analyses the latest trends and evolution of international investment treaty reform, drawing on new data from its online IIA Content Mapping database and its new IIA Facilitation Mapping database. The findings point to an investment regime in flux and marked by significant substantive changes.

Two phases of reform

Analyzing international investment agreements (IIAs) concluded between 2010 and 2024, the report identifies two main phases of reform. 

• An initial phase focused on recalibrating traditional investor protection standards and dispute settlement mechanisms,
• Second phase – since around 2015 – characterised by the growing inclusion of investment cooperation and facilitation provisions.

Key features of new-generation IIAs

New-generation IIAs increasingly emphasise cooperation and facilitation, continue to refine protection standards and show a gradual expansion of liberalisation commitments, though these require carefully designed policy flexibilities. 

Investor–State arbitration appears less frequently, while sustainable development provisions are becoming more prominent, though not yet fully mainstreamed.

Report by the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development