India and international investment law: preserving, delegating, and reclaiming sovereignty

Sovereignty is an age-old concept that continues to occupy centerstage in international law discourse. This article attempts to look at India's tryst with international investment law through the prism of sovereignty, positing it as the right of the state to regulate it in public interest. It divides India's experience with international investment law in three phases – the periods of preserving (1947–1990), delegating (1991–2010), and reclaiming (2011 onward) sovereignty. The article shows how India's rendezvous with international investment law moved from zealously guarding India's sovereign space by not accepting international law on foreign investment in the first four decades of India's independence to delegating sovereignty to international law on foreign investment from 1991 onward. However, the period from 2011 onward saw India reclaiming some of its ceded sovereignty by significantly altering its terms of engagement with international investment law.