Nations Are Exiting a Secretive System That Protects Corporations. One Country’s Story Shows How Hard That Can Be
Bolivia was the first nation to begin leaving a legal system that allows foreign companies to sue governments behind closed doors. Now, other countries are following.
Investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, lets foreign companies bypass national courts and sue governments before international panels of arbitrators.
It's an interesting example how something that most people wouldn't want if they knew about it still gets implemented.
One reason I want worker cooperatives to become the dominant type of business is that it would reduce the number of powerful actors which are unaccountable to the public. Democratic entities still make bad decisions, but fewer, and there's a mechanism for error correction.
For the western hemisphere that includes things like:
FTAA
NAFTA
Which allows corps and foreign govs to SUPERCEDE local national laws and rights.
Adding ...
Canada/China Foreign Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (FIPPA) - signed by Conservative PM Stephen Harper in 2012 (effective in 2014), locking Canada into it for 31 years.
Is this about the MAI?
Edit: for those unaware about the MAI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilateral_Agreement_on_Investment
Man this is going to go up there with citiens united and the patriot act for me. Its pretty clear this allowed for the hyper globalism we have had since.
The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was a draft agreement negotiated in secret between members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between 1995 and 1998.[1][2] It sought to establish a new body of universal investment laws that would grant corporations unconditional rights to engage in financial operations around the world, without any regard to national laws and citizens' rights. The draft gave corporations a right to sue governments if national health, labor or environment legislation threatened their interests.
Literally designed to put the interests of corporations above the interests of nations and their citizens
Good. This is long overdue.
Fascinating. Thank you for sharing this.
Gants. Arguing that exiting agreements could hurt climate investment. Color me shocked.