The 2015 Indian Model BIT

Abstract

In 2015 India released the final text of a model bilateral investment treaty (BIT) which sought to optimise the balance between these two goals, and which was to form the basis for negotiations of BITs with other countries. The text was perceived as a particularly radical departure from the existing status quo, and has been the subject of significant commentary and discussion. This contribution seeks to situate the 2015 Indian model BIT in the historico-legal context of India’s engagement with investment arbitration.

Section I sets out a brief history of India’s engagement with investment treaties and investment arbitration in an attempt to place the model BIT in the historical context of India’s engagement with investment treaties and investment arbitration. Sections II to IV undertake a detailed analysis of scope and jurisdictional issues (Section II), substantive provisions (Section III) and the dispute resolution mechanism (Section IV) in the new model BIT, in an effort to provide a legal context to the model. By analysing the text of the model BIT and comparing it against previous model and negotiated texts, these sections hope to provide an insight into the genesis and rationale for the major innovations introduced by the 2015 Model.

Keywords: International investment law, investment arbitration, investor-state dispute settlement, Indian model BIT