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Here on Techdirt, we've been writing about the dangers of corporate sovereignty
for a while. In recent months, more and more people and organizations
have pointed out that the plan to include an investor-state dispute
settlement (ISDS) in the TAFTA/TTIP agreement currently being negotiated
is fraught with dangers -- and also completely unnecessary given the
fair and efficient legal systems that exist on both sides of the
Atlantic. It seems that this chorus of disapproval has finally been noticed, in Brussels at least:
On
Techdirt.
Techdirt has already examined the issue of corporate sovereignty many
times over the past year, as it has emerged as one of the most
problematic areas of both TPP and TAFTA/TTIP. A fine article by Simon
Lester of the Cato Institute examines a hidden assumption in these negotiations: that an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism is needed at all.
On
Techdirt.
Yesterday, Mike reported on the introduction of the "fast track authority" bill in the Senate, and pointed out some of its most troubling
aspects. But it's a long document -- over 100 pages -- and hidden away
within it are some other areas that raise important questions. Take, for
example, Section 8, which concerns sovereignty:
On
Techdirt.
Back in October, we introduced the term "corporate sovereignty"
as an alternative to the standard but misleading phrase "investor-state
dispute settlement" (ISDS) that is generally used. We noted that
perhaps the worst manifestation of corporate sovereignty so far can be
seen in Ecuador, where one of the secret tribunals used in these cases
had ordered the Ecuadorean government to place Chevron above the
country's constitution.
On
Techdirt.
Techdirt has been writing about corporate sovereignty (also known as investor-state dispute settlement -- ISDS) for a year now. Back in April, we noted that it was likely to be part of the TAFTA/TTIP negotiations, which were just about to start. Since then, more and more people have woken up to its dangers, and called for corporate sovereignty to be dropped from the negotiations.
On
Techdirt.
Despite the growing evidence
that corporate sovereignty clauses in international treaties pose
considerable risks to nations that sign them, such "investor-state
dispute settlement" (ISDS) mechanisms are present in both TPP and
TAFTA/TTIP -- at least as far as we know: it's hard to be sure given the
obsessive secrecy surrounding them.
On
Techdirt.
One of the difficulties of making people aware
of the huge impact that investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
clauses in TPP and TAFTA/TTIP are likely to have on their lives, is that
the name is so boring, and so they tend to assume that what it
describes is also boring and not worth worrying about. And yet what
began as an entirely reasonable system for protecting investments in
emerging economies with weak judiciaries, through the use of independent
tribunals, has turned into a monster that now allows companies to place themselves above national laws, as Techdirt has reported before.
On
Techdirt.
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