Prabhash Ranjan (On Leave)

On leave till 31st October 2012 to read for PhD at King's College London, UK

Email addresses:
pragmaticranjan@yahoo.com  / pranjan1278@gmail.com


School or Center:
School of Economic and Business Laws.

BIO

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), King's College London, University of London, United Kingdom (Expected date of completion September 2012). Primary Supervisor - Dr Federico Ortino, Reader in International Economic Law, King’s College London.
• Master of Philosophy, (M.Phil), WB National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India, 2009. Thesis Supervisor - Professor Mahendra P Singh, Vice Chancellor, NUJS, Kolkata.
• Master of Laws, (LL.M) in International Business Law, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, United Kingdom, 2007. Did one course at University College London (UCL) as part of the inter-collegiate London University LLM programme. LLM Dissertation Supervisor – Professor Peter T Muchlinski, Professor of International Commercial Law, SOAS, London.
• Bachelor of Laws, (LL.B) Campus Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi, India 2003; and
  
• Bachelor of Arts, [B.A. (Hons)] in Economics, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India 2000.

• 2010: Awarded Early Career Researcher Award and appointed as a Visiting Scholar by Sydney Law School, University of Sydney.
• 2009: Awarded the King's College School of Law doctoral scholarship.
• 2009: Awarded the President's Graduate Fellowship by National University of Singapore to pursue PhD at NUS (declined).
• 2009: Awarded the School of Law Scholarship and Tuition Fee Research Scholarship by University of Nottingham, UK to pursue PhD (declined).
• 2009: Awarded the Faculty of Social Sciences Studentship by University of Reading, UK to pursue PhD at the law school at University of Reading (declined).
• 2009: Invited as an expert on international investment law by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India to be part of India's negotiating team on international investment treaty negotiations.
• 2008: Selected as one of the 12 Young scholars in Asia out of more than 300 applicants by the Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL) and National University of Singapore (NUS) and awarded a grant to present a paper and attend the Young Scholar's workshop organised by NUS in Singapore;
• 2008-2009: Awarded a research grant of US $ 10,000 by the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Centre in Colombo to undertake a project on bilateral investment treaties and regulatory discretion of six Asian countries;
• 2007: Awarded a Distinction [highest grade (attained distinction in all courses)] in LL.M by University of London;
• 2007: Awarded a research grant of US $ 3000 by the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Centre in Colombo to undertake a project on bilateral investment treaties and regulatory discretion of the countries in the SAARC and the ASEAN region;
• 2006:  Awarded the British Chevening Scholarship to study in the United Kingdom for the LLM degree;
• 2006:  Awarded a research grant of US $ 2000 (equivalent in Indian rupees) by the Centre for Trade and Development to write a research paper on Anti Dumping and South Asia for the South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development;
• 2004: Awarded travel grant by the American Society of International Law (ASIL) to present a paper and attend the Human Rights and Trade conference at the Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington DC;
• 2003: Won second prize in a paper presentation competition organised by the Delimitation Commission of India in Delhi on delimitation of parliamentary constituencies;
• Awarded travel grant/scholarship to present papers at several international conferences organised by organisations like UNDP, Oxfam, Third World Network, Institute of Policy Studies, Commonwealth Secretariat, Centre for Policy Dialogue held at places such as Penang, Colombo, Kathmandu, Dhaka, New Delhi and also in various national conferences.

• November 2007-Present - Assistant Professor of Law - WB National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata, India;
• November 2006 - July 2007 - Research Assistant - University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom. Worked as research assistant to Professor Valentine Korah, Emeritus Professor of Competition Law at UCL for her book on EC Competition Law - Valentine Korah, An Introductory Guide to EC Competition Law and Practice (Hart Publishing: 9th edition: Oxford: 2007);
• December 2004 - September 2006 - Consultant to Oxfam Great Britain in India as Research Officer - Centre for Trade and Development, An Oxfam GB Initiative, New Delhi, India;
• August 2005 - October 2007 - Visiting Faculty - Indian Law Institute, New Delhi, India;
• May 2003 - November 2004 - Legal Researcher - CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics and Environment, Jaipur, India.

1. 'Treaties on Trade and Investment and the Indian Legal Regime', 11 (1) Australian Journal of Asian Law (2009), 56-81.
2. 'Recent Developments in India's Plant Variety Protection, Seed Regulation and linkages with UPOV's Proposed Membership', 12 (3) Journal of World Intellectual Property (2009), 219-243.
3. 'Definition of Investment in Bilateral Investment Treaties of South Asian Countries and Regulatory Discretion’, 26 (2) Journal of International Arbitration (2009), 217-235.
4. 'Medical Patents and Expropriation in International Investment Law - With Special Reference to India' 5 (3) Manchester Journal of International Economic Law (2008), 72-104.
5. 'Understanding the Conflicts between the TRIPS Agreement and the Human Right to Health', 9 (6) Journal of World Investment and Trade (2008), 551-578.
6. 'Industrial Tariff Reduction: Why the best might still turn out to be the worst?' 42 (5) Journal of World Trade (2008), 953-966.
7. 'International Investment Agreements and Regulatory Discretion: Case Study of India', 9 (2) Journal of World Investment and Trade (2008), 209-243.
8. 'Bilateralism, MFN and TRIPS: Exploring the Possibilities of Alternative Interpretation', 13 (4) International Trade Law and Regulation (Sweet and Maxwell, London) (2007), 67-78.
9. 'International Trade and Human Rights: Conflicting Obligations?’, in Thomas Cottier, Joost Pauwelyn and Elisabeth Bürgi (eds.), Human Rights and International Trade, (Oxford University Press: Oxford: 2005), 311-321.


Refereed (Journals and edited volumes published from India)


10. 'Indian Investment Treaty Programme in Light of Global Experiences’, 45 Economic and Political Weekly (2010), 68-73.
11. 'Applicable Law in the Disputes of the World Trade Organization’, 44 (15) Economic and Political Weekly (2009), 23-27.
12. 'Choosing the Appropriate Tariff Reduction Formula in NAMA’, 41 (6), Economic and Political Weekly (2006), 1507-1511.
13. 'Anti Dumping and South Asia’, in, BS Chimni, BL Das, Mustafizur Rahman and Saman Kelegama (eds) South Asian Yearbook of Trade and Development (Wiley-India: New Delhi: 2006), 329-356.
14. 'GSP – Still Open to Political Use’ (with Aparna Shivpuri), 40 (3), Economic and Political Weekly (2005), 195-198.
15. ‘Regional/Bilateral Trade Agreements and Bio Diversity’ (with Aparna Shivpuri) 45 (2), Indian Journal of International Law (2005), 370-378.
16. ‘GATS Encroaches Sovereignty of Nations: Is the Fear Magnified?’ (with Aparna Shivpuri) in Bibek Debroy and Mohammed Saqib (eds.), WTO at Ten: Looking Back to Look Beyond, (Rajiv Gandhi Foundation & Liberty Institute: Konark Publishers: 2005), 75-91.
17. ‘WTO law on Standards – Put to a Test’, 4 (2), ICFAI Journal of International Business Law (2005), 62-79.
18. ‘International Predation and Anti Dumping’, 39 (45), Economic and Political Weekly (2004), 4880-4884.
19. ‘Trade Facilitation and Dispute Settlement’, in CUTS (eds.), Trade Facilitation: Reducing the Transaction Costs or Burdening the Poor, (CUTS: Jaipur: 2004), 55-63.


Newspaper Articles


20. 'Fissures in FDI Regulatory Framework’, Business Standard (Op-Ed page), 20 January 2010..
21. 'Tread Cautiously on Bilateral Investment Treaties’, The Hindu Business Line (editorial page), 25 November 2009.
22. 'Doha Round: Has multilateral trade slipped over the edge?’ (with Robin Koshy), The Hindu Business Line (editorial page), 19 September 2006.
23. 'The Death of the ABI Alliance’, The Financial Express (op-ed page), 28 June 2006.
24. 'Can we Afford to Sacrifice NAMA at the WTO Altar’ (with Biplove Choudhary) The Hindu Business Line (op-ed page), 16 June 2006.
25. 'Chasing the Agricultural Market Access Mirage’ (with Robin Koshy), Business Standard (op-ed page), 23 July 2005.
26. ‘In Defence of Girard formula’, The Financial Express (op-ed page), 18 May 2005.
27. ‘WTO and International Law’, The Hindu, 8 June 2004.


Working Papers / Briefing Papers / Research Reports / Rapporteur's Report


28. 'ASEAN and SAARC Bilateral Investment Treaties and Policy Space' (with Biplove Choudhary, K M Gopakumar and Nirmalya Syam), Research Report, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Centre Colombo (2010) (Forthcoming).
29. 'Medical Patents and Expropriation in International Investment Law - With Special Reference to India' Working Paper - 2008/15 Young Scholar’s Workshop of the Asian Society of International Law, 2008..
30. 'Agriculture and NAMA Negotiations: Searching for the Landing Zone', Working Paper - 4, Centad, an Oxfam GB initiative, April 2006.
31. 'Tariff Negotiations in NAMA and South Asia: July Agreement and Beyond', Working Paper - 3, Centad, an Oxfam GB initiative, April 2005.
32. 'Pre Hong Kong Ministerial Consultation: GATS Negotiations', Rapporteur's Report (with UNCTAD India), organised by UNCTAD, Government of India and DFID, August 8-9, 2005.
33. 'How Long Can the G20 hold itself together: A Power Analysis', Working Paper -1, Centad, an Oxfam GB initiative, February 2005.
34. 'GSP - Winning the Battle, Losing the War', Trade Law Briefing Paper, CUTS (2004).
35. 'Protectionism and Trade Remedial Measures' (with N L Mitra), Research Report, CUTS (2004).
36. 'Dealing with Protectionist Standard Setting: Effectiveness of SPS and TBT Agreements' (with Ralf J Van de Beek), Research Report, CUTS (2003).

• "Capital Transfer Provisions in Indian Investment Treaties and India's Regulatory Discretion", at the Society of International Economic Law's 2010 Conference, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 8-10 July 2010 (Forthcoming).
• 'Non Precluded Measures in Indian International Investment Agreements and Regulatory Discretion’, at the International Conference on Investment Treaty Arbitration, organized by Sydney Law School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, February 19-20, 2010.
• 'Medical Patents and Expropriation in International Investment Law – With special reference to India’, at ‘Young Scholar’s Workshop’ organized by the Asian Society of International Law and National University of Singapore, Singapore, September 10-12, 2008 (paper published in Manchester Journal of International Economic Law).
• 'Investment Area in South Asia’ (discussant) at ‘First South Asia Economic Summit’ organized by the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 28-30, 2008.
• 'SAARC and ASEAN Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITS)’ at ‘UNDP conference on Trade’ organised by UNDP and Third World Network, Penang, Malaysia, December 17-18, 2007.
• 'International Trade and Human Rights’, at a conference ‘Human Rights in the Global Economy’ organised by Centre for Promotion of Human Rights Teaching and Research, School of International Studies, Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) and Centre for International Legal Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi, India, March 19-21, 2006.
• Attended the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference at Hong Kong, China, December 13-18, 2005.
• 'WTO Rules’, at International Civil Society Forum for Advancing Interests of LDCs in the Sixth WTO Ministerial Meeting, organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 3-5, 2005.
• TRIPS and Biodiversity’, at a conference organised by South Asia Watch on Trade Economics and Environment, Kathmandu, Nepal, October 8-9, 2004.
• 'International Trade and Human Rights: Conflicting Obligations’, at Trade and Human Rights conference organised by the American Society of International law (ASIL) at Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington DC, United States of America, April 5-6, 2004 (paper published in the Oxford University Press volume on Trade and Human rights).

• Consultant for a Research project aimed at understanding the implications of the SAARC and ASEAN Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) on the policy space of these countries, supported by the United Nations Development Programme, Regional Centre Colombo, [December 2006 - September 2007];
• Consultant for a Research project on developing an access and benefit sharing regime in international law to safeguard farmer's rights, supported by the South Asia Watch on Trade Economics and Environment (SAWTEE), Nepal, [October - December 2008];
• Visiting Faculty to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Kolkata for IIFT's Executive MBA programme, [June - August 2008].
• Judged the National Law School of India University-Herbert Smith LLP essay competition, [December 2008];
• Research consultant to Centre for Trade and Development (Centad) for Centad's quarterly magazine - Trading Up (Volume IV, Issue 1, 2008), [August - October 2008];
• Consultant to Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for conducting capacity building workshops on WTO in India, [July 2006];
• Faculty for the Indian Law Institute for a training programme for University Law Teachers jointly organised by the Indian Law Institute and the University Grants Commission, India, [August 2006].

• Member, Society of International Economic Law (SIEL), London;
• Member, Asian Society of International Law (AsianSIL), Singapore;
• Member, Indian Society of International Law (ISIL), New Delhi.