Publications

A recent paper has undertaken a striking ​‘first systemic analysis’ on whether developing country governments ​‘treat foreign firms better, worse or the same as domestic firms’ and has concluded that ​‘foreign firms tend to be treated at least as well by developing country governments as comparable domestic firms on average’ (see, Aisbett et al., Relative Treatment of Aliens: how level is the playing field for foreign firms in developing countries…

Reflecting international practice, a large variety of concessions agreements in India contain stabilization clauses — or, more specifically, a ​‘change in law’ clause which (in the version generally used in Indian practice) entitles a concessionaire impacted adversely by a ​‘change in law’ event to be recompensed to achieve economic equilibrium i.e. restitution to a position of profitability projected at the time of entering into the concession. Not…

On 24 February 1603, three Dutch ships belonging to the then-newly formed Dutch East India Company anchored off the Strait of Singapore. Later that night, a large Portuguese carrack, Santa Catarina, anchored next to them. It was a gigantic U‑shaped boat carrying nearly a thousand people (majority slaves), 1200 bales of Chinese raw silk, several hundred ounces of musk, and a large amount of Ming porcelain. Losing no time, the…

The recent decision of the Hague District Court in Friends of the Earth v Royal Dutch Shell marks the first instance where a duty was cast on a corporation to reduce its carbon emissions. Consequently, this decision is significant in the efforts to create a regime of corporate emissions liability. Little attention, however, has been spent on how this decision treats legal entities. In holding Royal Dutch Shell responsible for Shell…

One of India’s many fiscal challenges this budget season relates almost entirely to how the law is read on retrospective taxation. What hangs in the balance is over INR 50,000 crore or more that may be owed to the exchequer by Cairn Energy Plc and Vodafone BV — both international disputes having resulted in recent arbitral awards that have ruled against India on the issue (the ​“Retrospective Tax Awards”). There is much, however, that…