About the Lecture:

This seminar seeks to enhance participants’ understanding of India’s evolving international investment agreements (IIAs) landscape, drawing on the conceptual framework of legalization and judicialization. In this seminar, Professor Prabhash Ranjan will examine India’s shift from signing “pro-investor” treaties in the 1990s and 2000s to a seemingly more cautious, “pro-state” model. This marks the re-legalization and re-judicialization of India's international investment relations. It has been ten years since India adopted a new Model BIT with the hope that it would be able to sign and quickly replace its old treaties (now terminated) with the new ones. However, this belief has not materialised. India's re-legalized and re-judicalized BIT model has had very few takers. While India has made some attempts to deviate from its “pro-state” model in its recent BIT with the UAE, there is little evidence to suggest that India will depart from its “pro-state” model. With the sunset clauses of many of the terminated treaties coming to an end soon, India will enter a new phase of an international investment law vacuum. Another key characteristic of India’s IIA landscape has been not to include investment protection chapters in its FTAs, instead replacing them with investment promotion chapters. This is evident in India's FTAs with the EFTA states and New Zealand. The seminar will also consider the practical implications of these policy changes for investor-state dispute settlement and cross-border investments in India.

The seminar will conclude with a moderated discussion and Q&A.

After the seminar, a networking reception will be hosted by Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Prolegis Alliance.

About the Speaker:

Prabhash Ranjan is a Professor and the Vice Dean for Research at the Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University. He holds a Ph.D. in law from King’s College London and has been a Chevening Scholar and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow.

His research interests include international investment law and world trade law. Prabhash has published nearly 80 research papers in several leading international journals, such as the ICSID Review, Legal Issues of Economic Integration, Journal of World Trade, Asian Journal of International Law, Journal of World Investment and Trade, and the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business, among others, and in edited volumes published by esteemed publishers like OUP, CUP, Routledge, and Springer. His single-authored books include: "India and Bilateral Investment Treaties: Refusal, Acceptance, Backlash" (OUP: 2019) and "India and Investor State Dispute Settlement: Affronting Sovereignty or Indicting Capriciousness" (Routledge: 2024). Furthermore, Prabhash has written nearly 250 op-eds for India’s leading national newspapers, including The Hindu, Hindustan Times, and The Indian Express.

SILE ACCREDITED CPD ACTIVITY

1.0 Public CPD Point
Practice Area: International Law
Training Category: General

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