Reforming fair & equitable treatment provisions in Bangladesh's bilateral investment treaties: a path towards balancing national sovereignty with foreign investors' commercial interests

This thesis provides a comprehensive examination of the Fair and Equitable Treatment (FET) provisions within Bangladeshi Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and their implications for foreign investment. It critically assesses the effectiveness of current FET provisions in striking a balance between Bangladesh's national sovereignty and the commercial interests of foreign investors. Through an extensive literature review, analyses of discrepancies in the wording and levels of protections in existing FET provisions, case study analyses and comparative examinations of other countries’ FET provisions in BITs, this thesis exposes the vulnerability of Bangladesh's current BIT framework. Ambiguous FET provisions and weak BIT practises have led to a sharp rise in the number of investment disputes filed by foreign investors against Bangladesh in recent years. Notable cases including Saipem, Niko, Chevron, Scimitar and NEPC reveal how weakly protected FET provisions and ineffective BIT practises have allowed foreign investors to file cases against Bangladesh for substantial claims. This has been worsened by Bangladesh's casual BIT signings, lacking proper negotiation and foresight on foreign investment claim ramifications. These claims are not only having a damaging impact on Bangladesh’s economy but are limiting its regulatory freedom. Balancing fewer arbitration cases with the need for foreign investment is crucial for the country's economy and sustainable growth. Comparing India and the US's FET strategies in BITs, this thesis argues that adopting India's approach of removing FET provisions entirely could be detrimental for Bangladesh's foreign investment attraction. The US model, which balances national and foreign investors' interests through institutional strengthening and safeguarding FET provisions, is more suitable. However, this requires the establishment of a robust institution with a reviewing council in Bangladesh tasked with developing, monitoring and reviewing their BIT framework in line with international standards. Drawing upon all findings from the analyses of the discrepancies in FET provisions, exploratory case studies and comparative analysis, a series of pragmatic recommendations are proposed to tackle the legitimacy crisis of current FET provisions within Bangladeshi BITs. These specifically encompass the formation of an independent institution with council, developing a model BIT with safeguarded FET provisions and reforming domestic laws on foreign investment. These recommendations take Bangladesh’s developing status into account and address the full spectrum of issues previously raised. This thesis provides the first in-depth academic examination of FET issues within Bangladeshi BITs. While it offers foundational principles for the reformation of Bangladesh's foreign investment framework, it also calls for broader, global research to ascertain the most effective FET standards for other developing nations. The findings and recommendations laid out herein not only offer a roadmap for Bangladesh but also serve as inspiration for other developing countries grappling with similar challenges in the evolving landscape of foreign investment and international arbitration

Genetic and Phenotypic Parameters of Body Weight in Ettawa Grade Goats

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic and phenotypic parameters of growth traits consisting of birth weight (BW), weaning weight (WW), 6 mo body weight (6WM), 12 mo body weight (12WM), and 18 mo body weight (18WM) of Ettawa Grade goats. The number of goat used to determine growth traits of BW, WW, 6WM, 12WM, and 18WM were 316; 316; 259; 259 and 165 heads, respectively. Data were analyzed using General Linear Model (GLM) to identify non-genetic effect. Estimation of genetic and phenotypic parameters including heritability, repeatability, genetic and phenotypic correlation were calculated using Restricted Maximum Likelihood and GLM. Genetic trends were calculated using the regression of mean breeding values on birth year. The results showed that parity and type of birth had significant (P<0.05) influence on all growth traits. Estimated heritability of birth, weaning, 6WM, 12WM, and 18WM were 0.54±0.12; 0.35±0.07; 0.37±0.09; 0.68±0.16 and 0.63±0.19, respectively. Estimated repeatability of WW, 6WM, 12WM and 18WM, WW, 6WM, 12WM and 18WM were 0.98±0.01; 0.97±0.01; 0.94±0.03; 0.71±0.12 and 0.91±0.04, respectively. The genetic trends for traits of BW and 18MW were decreased fluctuatively. However, the WW, 6MW, 12MW were increased fluctuatively. The high and positive genetic correlations between all growth traits and 12WM traits in this study indicated that selection for high 12WM will improve genetic merit in Ettawa Grade goats

Towards the Formal Reliability Analysis of Oil and Gas Pipelines

It is customary to assess the reliability of underground oil and gas pipelines in the presence of excessive loading and corrosion effects to ensure a leak-free transport of hazardous materials. The main idea behind this reliability analysis is to model the given pipeline system as a Reliability Block Diagram (RBD) of segments such that the reliability of an individual pipeline segment can be represented by a random variable. Traditionally, computer simulation is used to perform this reliability analysis but it provides approximate results and requires an enormous amount of CPU time for attaining reasonable estimates. Due to its approximate nature, simulation is not very suitable for analyzing safety-critical systems like oil and gas pipelines, where even minor analysis flaws may result in catastrophic consequences. As an accurate alternative, we propose to use a higher-order-logic theorem prover (HOL) for the reliability analysis of pipelines. As a first step towards this idea, this paper provides a higher-order-logic formalization of reliability and the series RBD using the HOL theorem prover. For illustration, we present the formal analysis of a simple pipeline that can be modeled as a series RBD of segments with exponentially distributed failure times.Comment: 15 page