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19 Manchester J. Int'l Econ. L. 112 (2022)
The Future of India's Investment Treaty Practice: An Important Parliamentary Intervention

handle is hein.journals/mjiel19 and id is 117 raw text is: Manchester Journal of International Economic Law Volume 19, Issue 1: 112-125, 2022 The Future of India's Investment Treaty Practice: An Important Parliamentary Intervention Prabhash Ranjan* ABSTRACT: India's bilateral investment treaty (BIT) programme has undergone a complete overhaul ever since India was sued by multiple foreign investors before various investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals. India unilaterally terminated all its BITs, adopted a new Model BIT, and is now negotiating new investment treaties with several countries like the European Union and Australia. Against this background, the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs has made some significant recommendations on India's approach toward BITs. The parliamentary committee recognises the value of BITs for India to attract foreign investment inflows. This paper studies the critical recommendations of the parliamentary committee and concludes that India needs to revisit its Model BIT to strike a balance between investment protection and State's right to regulate. This recalibration in India's approach would be useful at a time when it is endeavouring to enter into investment treaties with important capital exporting countries to India. 1. INTRODUCTION Rattled by an innumerable number of investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) claims, a few years back, India decided to review its investment treaty practice.1 This review led to India unilaterally terminating its bilateral investment treaties (BITs) 2 and spelling out a new investment treaty practice based on principles enshrined in the 2016 Model BIT.3 Since then India has managed to sign a few BITs, based on the 2016 Model BIT, with countries like * Prabhash Ranjan, Professor and Vice Dean, Jindal Global Law School, O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Delhi-NCR, India. The author is grateful to Faizan Ahmad for his useful research assistance. ' For a detailed discussion on India's BIT practice see Prabhash Ranjan, India and Bilateral Investment Treaties: Refusal, Acceptance, Backlash (Oxford University Press, 2019); Aniruddha Rajput, Protection of Foreign Investment in India and Investment Treaty Arbitration (Kluwer Law International, 2018). 2 India has unilaterally terminated around 70 BITs. See Government of India, 'BIT' Department of Economic Affairs, https://dea.gov.in/bipa (accessed 10 January 2022). 3India, Model Text for the Indian Bilateral Investment Treaty' (hereinafter '2016 India Model BIT'), https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/ModelBITAnnex_0.pdf (accessed 10 January 2022) 112

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