General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 'Today Marks the End of TTIP': Greenpeace Leak Exposes Corporate Takeover [View all]Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)There are similar chapters in TTIP and TiSA. This chapter is currently a stumbling block in the TTIP negotiations.
Here is the official summary (caution -- it's what they want you to know) of the chapter in .pdf format.
Also in .pdf format, here is the trxt of the entire chapter.
Chapter 28 provides for an Investor-State Dispute Settlement process, under which a corporation may bring action against a government at any level if the corporate officers believe that a government action will deprive the corporation of expected future profits. If a state attempts to regulate harmful emissions from a smoke stack, the factory owners may take action against the state before an ISDS panel, which consists of three corporate lawyers. The panel members are chosen by the plaintiffs and the defendants, with each picking one panelist and agreeing on the third, who serves as chairman. The process to select the panel chairman is complicated by going into what happens if the parties do not agree on a choice of a chairman.
A majority vote of the panel decides the dispute, but the identities of the panelist associated with the majority and minority views are not disclosed. Decisions are final. There is no appeal. The state will have no right to pursue the matter in its own courts.
In my view, this is an end run around democratic institutions. The state has lost sovereignty over its power to abate greenhouse gases or pollution by entering into an agreement such as the TPP. An elected representative of the people may sponsor and pass an anti-pollution bill, but, under the TPP, a corporate party may take the state to arbitration by an panel not responsible to any elected official for legally binding arbitration.
Any agreement that contains a provision such as this should be rejected without discussion.