India's Investment Treaty Programme: Towards De-legalisation?

A talk by Prof. Prabhash Ranjan

Until the end of 2010, India had one of the most extensive investment treaty programmes in the world. However, a series of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases led to the unilateral termination of most of those investment treaties. In early 2016, India adopted an inward-looking, pro-State Model bilateral investment treaty (BIT). Since then, the country has taken tentative steps towards new investment treaties. This raises the question of whether India is de-legalising its international investment relations. This would entail a shift away from binding international law obligations on foreign investment and taking back competencies given to international tribunals to resolve investor-state disputes. Paradoxically, this is occurring at a time when India wants to attract ever higher levels of foreign investment.

Prabhash Ranjan is currently a Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg. He is a Professor (on leave) at the Jindal Global Law School, O P Jindal Global University, India. Prabhash holds a PhD from King’s College London. His most recent book is entitled India and ISDS: Affronting Sovereignty or Indicting Capriciousness? (Routledge, 2024).

Date: Monday, 3 June, 2024

Time: 14:15-15:45, CET

Location: CATS, building 4130, Great Lecture Hall, 010.01.05

in Voßstr. 2, 69115 Heidelberg