Enforcement of International Arbitral Awards in Mining Disputes

Bilateral Investment Treaties (“BITs”) in the mining sector are quite popular around the globe today. The growing number in the mining industry is due to a very high amount of returns that mining industry promises in today’s energy-hungry world. However, investment in mining is a package-deal as it also comes with very high risk and has been a constant cause of dispute among host-nations and investors.There has been substantial development in extensive clauses by investors and host-nations to protect themselves from heavy losses of mining disputes. Coherently, International Arbitration on mining investment has also grown. India is no stranger to such disputes having endeavored to attract foreign investment in India in numerous sectors, including mining.The mining investment treaties have resulted in disputes and subsequently arbitral awards where India was generally at the receiving end. India has also been endeavoring to gain recognition as an International Commercial Arbitration hub and it has been keeping a Pro-Arbitration and Pro-enforcement approach.India is also a signatory of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1958 (“New York Convention”) and the Geneva Convention on the Execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards, 1927 (“Geneva Convention”), and the awards passed under these Conventions are also enforceable in India other than those resultant from BITs it has signed.