The CETA Investment Chapter and Sustainable Development: Interpretative Issues

Abstract

The United Nations Agenda 2030 and its sustainable developments goals (SDGs) uphold the status of sustainable development as being the global objective and guiding principle for various fields of international governance. The concept is relevant for international norm-creation but also for the interpretation of international norms. Its interpretative function is relevant with respect to international investment law. In this context, the idea is to integrate environmental and social concerns into the interpreting process of investment provisions in order to reach more balanced outcomes. The present chapter specifically looks at the interpretative function of sustainable development under CETA. It namely seeks to answer the question of the implications of sustainable development on the interpretation of the CETA Investment Chapter. It, therefore presents the explicit references to sustainable development in either the CETA text itself or, in instruments connected to it. The purpose is to comment on their respective values for the interpretation of the CETA Investment Chapter.