Significance of protecting environment through the Bilateral Investment Treaties of Bangladesh: A Comparison with Netherlands.

In absence of any global treaty, the bilateral investment treaties are playing an important role of regulating foreign investments in the host countries. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2361 bilateral investment treaties are in force and like other members of the World Trade Organization Bangladesh also signed bilateral investment treaties to facilitate trade. The primary purpose of economic globalization is the economic development of the developing and least-developed countries as well as to facilitate benefits of the home states. Bangladesh foreign investment laws and bilateral investment treaties mainly protects foreign investors, however, neither of them has any specific provision of protecting environment. The Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 2010 only requires foreign investors to obtain a clearance certificate before establishing any industry but significantly lacks any provision to impose liability for environmental damages. This paper addresses two questions: (a) do the bilateral investment treaties of Bangladesh and Netherlands allow the host state to take measures to protect the environment? (b) should the environmental protection be considered during the entry of foreign direct investment in Bangladesh and Netherlands? Using doctrinal research method, the authors critically analyzed 27 bilateral investment treaties to explore whether there is any reference of protecting environment in both countries. The authors find that the existing Bangladesh and Netherlands bilateral investment treaties have provisions to promote and protect foreign investments but have no reference (except Bangladesh-Turkey BIT, Bangladesh-UAE BIT, Netherlands-U.A.E. BIT and Netherlands-India BIT) of protecting environment. Therefore, the authors recommend both governments to consider this important factor while signing any future bilateral investment treaties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]