Description
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS INDIA AND BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES C by Prabhash Ranjan
Many countries have started contesting international investment treaties that allow foreign corporations to sue sovereign States for alleged treaty breaches at international arbitration fora. This contestation has taken the form of either countries terminating their investment treaties or walking out of the investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) system. India has also jumped on the contestation bandwagon. As a consequence of being sued by more than 20 foreigninvestors India terminated close to 60 investment treaties and adopted a new model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) purportedly to balance investment protection with the host States right to regulate. This book studies critically Indias approach towards BITs by tracing its origin evolution and thecurrent state of play. The book does so by locating it in Indias economic policy in general and policy towards foreign investment in particular. Indias approach towards BITs and its policy towards foreign investment were consistent with each other in the periods of economic nationalism (1947-1990) and economic liberalism (1991-2010). However post 2010 Indias approach to BITs has become protectionist while Indias foreign investment policy continues to be liberal. In order to balanceinvestment protection with the States right to regulate India needs to evolve its BIT practice based on the twin framework of international rule of law and embedded liberalism.