Argha Kumar Jena
Argha Kumar Jena is CELIS Assistant Country Reporter for India.
Dr. Argha Kumar Jena, LL.M. (Berlin), Principal Associate at DMD Advocates, is an Indian attorney specializing in international contracts, contract related litigation dispute resolution and international economic law with nearly a decade’s experience. Since being admitted to the Bar Council of India, he has worked with law firms in Germany, Italy and India, to continuously represent entities based in countries of the European Union (EU), Asia and the Middle East in transactions and disputes. He also serves as a member and coordinator of the Task Force on International Investment Contracts and Awards at the Roma Tre-UNIDROIT Centre for Transnational Commercial Law and International Arbitration.
He has previously served as a Senior Legal Consultant at the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA), Indian Ministry of Finance where he advised the Government of India on matters of international investment and trade law. During his tenure at DEA, Dr. Jena had been a part of the negotiating team(s) of the concluded India-UAE BIT (2024); India-Uzbekistan BIT (2024); Investment Chapter of the India-EFTA TEPA (2024); and Investment Chapter of the India-Korea CEPA upgrade negotiations, amongst others. Aside from matters in investor-State dispute resolution, Dr. Jena had advised directly in formulation of the positions of the Ministry of Finance in multilateral forums concerning investment and trade in services commitments under WTO law (including the IFD Agreement); Investment concerns related to intergovernmental institutions like UNCITRAL WG III, UNCTAD, OECD, SCO, BIMSTEC and ASEAN.
Furthermore, he had also served as a Senior Associate to a renowned European arbitrator and designated legal expert. During such time he had assisted in providing legal expert advice to several European governments and major corporations in over 30 investment treaty disputes and related proceedings. He was the part of the team of experts that composed two impact assessment studies for the European Commission in 2021 and 2022 on Access of Justice for domestic and internationalised SMEs under the international investment and trade laws of the European Union.
Dr. Jena has an interdisciplinary research doctorate (Ph.D.) in International Law and Economics from the Uninettuno University of Rome, where he was admitted with a full scholarship from the Italian Ministry of Higher Education alongside a master’s degree (LL.M.) in International Dispute Resolution from the Humboldt University of Berlin. He also lectures periodically on topics of international commercial law as well as private and public international law.
