BITs in pieces

As bilateral investment treaties' dispute settlement mechanisms become controversial and face backlash, Prabhash Ranjan's book serves as a compass for navigating these turbulent waters

India and Investor-State Dispute Settlement: Affronting Sovereignty or Indicting Capriciousness

Author: Prabhash Ranjan

Publisher: Routledge

Pages: 182

Price: Rs 13,650

Countries sign bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to attract foreign investments to enhance manufacturing, generate jobs, and seek new technologies for sustained economic activity. A surfeit of BITs since the 1990s, about 3,000 worldwide, was a consequence of the embrace of the “Washington Consensus” that advocated liberalisation. That bonhomie seems to be over now with BITs facing a backlash largely owing to the contentious “Investor State Dispute Settlement” (ISDS) that empowers a foreign investor to directly bring claims and seek compensation against the state through arbitration.