Deirdre Fulton - Common Dreams
A Salvadoran delegation is in Canada this week to warn of how investor provisions threaten democracy, public health, and environment
In a case illustrating the dangers ...
... – the right to sue governments in international arbitration tribunals granted under a complex web of free trade agreements (FTAs) and thousands of bilateral investment treaties (BITs).
This report explains ...
... and have their suits heard before private, investor-friendly international tribunals.
The Trudeau government has channeled more than $100 million in assistance for international projects whose real purpose ...
... Too often, these groups’ close ties to business elites place them on the wrong side of conflicts between local communities and development projects tainted by crime or corruption.
Sometimes these tribunals ...
... in Investor-State jurisprudence. However, as Pablo Mori Brigante noted, arbitral tribunals currently tend to apply a more flexible standard (preponderance of the evidence) to prove acts of corruption, ...
... tactics to forcibly open mining operations in places where communities have resisted them.
First, they resort to repression. Then, if that fails, they sue governments in international tribunals — which ...
... lawsuits brought before international arbitration tribunals by private companies, claiming more than US$3 billion in compensation.
Citing force majeure because of the COVID-19 health crisis , Bolivia ...
... its acronym, ISDS—foreign investors can bypass domestic courts and bring claims directly to supranational arbitration tribunals.
A wealthy nation like the United States could conceivably face such claims ...
... aspects of the original NAFTA was that it allowed private corporations to sue governments in international tribunals, demanding compensation for alleged violations of a wide range of investor “rights.” ...
... however, has decided to appeal the decision.
In August 2019, a second group of seven activists presented themselves to the tribunals to face similar charges and, like those cleared in March, the legal ...
... in Free Trade Agreements and other investment protection pacts, laws, or contracts. These allow companies to bypass domestic courts and sue governments before private tribunals of highly paid corporate ...
... agreements, gives transnational companies binding recourse to a perverse international arbitration system known as Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). ISDS claims are heard in tribunals such as ICSID ...
... at the supreme court, if that is not resolved by national institutions, then we are prepared to go to international tribunals” said Freddy Flores a leader of the local Community Development Association. ...
... have been winning most of the lawsuits in these so-called “investor-state” tribunals, but here again El Salvador prevailed.
How? Why? What lessons can be learned, and can nations and activists build ...
... no longer giving transnational corporations recourse to international tribunals.)
By 2013, Pacific Rim was in financial trouble and was bought out by Oceana Gold from Australia. By late 2016, after a ...
... associated with private tribunals, such as the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which heard the PacRim Cayman v. El Salvador case.
Rachel Small from the Council of Canadians ...
... to human rights and the environment that occur when corporations bring a suit to tribunals like ICSID,” explained Robin Broad, professor at the American University.
"A mining company that calls itself ...
... tribunals and demand compensation. There is increased opposition to the expansion of ISDS through the TAFTA, or Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, and the Obama administration recently published a justification ...
... in which the State may be considered as amounting to indirect appropriation. However, existing treaties do not provide an explicit definition of the concept, which requires investment tribunals to formulate ...
... these cases is often decided behind closed doors in unaccountable tribunals — like the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID.
While the Pacific Rim case ...