The bilateral investment treaty (BIT) between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which was signed earlier this year was recently made public. This BIT, which will replace the 2014 India-UAE investment treaty, is critical. It reveals India’s latest investment treaty practice and might elucidate India’s ongoing negotiations with the United Kingdom and the European Union. A typical BIT should accomplish two objectives. First, it should balance the competing goals of investment protection and the state’s sovereign right to regulate. Second, it should contain unambiguous provisions to reduce the discretion of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) tribunals.

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