Why the success of bilateral investment treaties need not pivot on provisions for foreign arbitration
In this context, BITs are important signalling instruments, but they alone won’t unleash foreign capital inflows. Policy stability, which is highly valued by investors, can be guaranteed only by internal reforms. India was party to over 80 BITs from the early 1990s till about 2016. Their mere existence did not enhance FDI flows; economic liberalization from the mid-1990s played a larger role. Similarly, the termination of most of our BITs in 2016 did not hurt FDI flows.
