The contribution of international financial institutions to international sustainable development law

This chapter discusses the role of international financial institutions (IFIs) in creating international sustainable development law. The IFIs’ posited contribution to lawmaking hinges on their safeguards, i.e. policies addressing development project-related environmental and social issues. Safeguard policies, specifically those concerning environmental and social assessment, involuntary settlement, and Indigenous peoples, are useful tools for operationalizing the concept of sustainability in the context of development project finance. This chapter additionally analyses the role of independent accountability mechanisms—quasi-judicial bodies that investigate harms arising from IFIs’ noncompliance with their own safeguards—in international lawmaking, including their potential to constrain or compel borrowing States to observe environmental and social norms when undertaking economic activities like development projects.