Originally from Investment Treaty Arbitration and International Law Volume 15

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I. INTRODUCTION

In the past five years, bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have been at the forefront of reform of the investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) system.  In an attempt to address the historically investor-friendly nature of BITs and multilateral treaties, a new generation of international investment agreements has emerged, seeking to present a more nuanced equilibrium between the interests of investors and those of host States and their citizens. With over 2300 BITs in force worldwide as of the date of this article,  the impact of such instruments upon the implementation of significant policy objectives cannot be ignored.

This paper will focus on four of these new model BITs: those of (i) India (2015), (ii) the Czech Republic (2016), (iii) Colombia (2017), and (iv) the Netherlands (2019), (the “new generation model BITs”).

The Model Text for the Indian Bilateral Investment Treaty (Indian Model BIT) was established in late 2015.   Its adoption followed the issuance of a draft Model BIT in March 2015  which was closely examined and extensively changed during a consultation process.