"Rethinking Bilateral Investment Treaties - critical issues and policy choices", 16 Mar 2016

...A new book published by Both ENDS, Madhyam and SOMO takes stock of current developments and explores alternative approaches to reform investment treaties...The book attempts to...address the systemic shortcomings of the current BIT regime...“Almost all investment treaties include a so-called ‘Investor to State Dispute Settlement mechanism’ (ISDS), allowing investors to sue their host state when changes to regulations threaten to reduce profits. Many countries have already faced unexpected claims against them, because they wanted to implement new laws or rules to ensure financial stability, or to protect the environment or the health of their people,” says Kavaljit Singh, director of Madhyam, New Delhi...The free-to-download book...covers a wide range of topics – from current trends in investor-state arbitration to the wider ramifications of investment treaties on...human rights....