PHM-Exch> As the world meets to discuss ISDS, many fear meaningless reforms
Claudio Schuftan
schuftan at gmail.com
Thu Apr 11 03:30:35 PDT 2019
From: Mónica Vargas C. <m.vargas at tni.org>
------------------------------
*As the world meets to discuss ISDS, many fear meaningless reforms*
by Alexander Beunder & Jilles Mast
*This week, representatives of around 100 countries are meeting in New York
to talk about investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). ISDS is a legal
instrument that multinationals can use to sue governments for billions.
External experts and observers fear that the new negotiations will amount
to ‘old wine in new bottles’. They believe that those who benefit from this
instrument (powerful states and top lawyers from the ISDS sector) are
controlling the debate.*
*Read the full article at:
**http://longreads.tni.org/isds-many-fear-meaningless-reforms/
<http://longreads.tni.org/isds-many-fear-meaningless-reforms/>*
*Share on:*
- Twitter https://twitter.com/TNInstitute/status/111415169010040832
<https://twitter.com/TNInstitute/status/1114151690100408320>
- Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TransnationalInstitute/photos/a.223271867724594/2374670455918047/
- Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv3_oDOl6D8/
*Summary*
- This week, delegations from around 100 countries are meeting in New
York to discuss investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).
- ISDS is a provision in more than 3,000 investment treaties that gives
corporations the right to sue national governments through arbitration,
circumventing national judicial systems, whenever they find that
governments infringe upon their rights as investors.
- After 942 ISDS cases, a growing number of countries, NGOs and
academics are voicing their concerns about this provision. ‘Big
corporations and the super-rich, along with the arbitration industry [the
lawyers who argue ISDS cases] are by far the main beneficiaries of ISDS’,
says Canadian professor Gus Van Harten.
- Within a working group of a UN commission (UNCITRAL Working Group
III), delegates from 60 countries will convene this week for the fourth
time, along with observer delegations from countries including the
Netherlands, to address concerns over ISDS and design reforms. These
negotiations began in 2017.
- Critics who attended the meetings claim that advocates of ISDS
(certain powerful countries and lawyers from the ‘arbitration industry’)
have a strong influence over the agenda during the talks. Whenever critical
delegations like South Africa have the floor, ‘their criticisms sometimes
don’t even make it into the official reports’, says New Zealand legal
scholar Jane Kelsey
- ISDS lawyers appear to hold administrative positions within the
working group and are represented in large numbers in the advisory bodies
that have been established for the working group.
- There are also external ‘observer’ organisations consisting mainly of
lawyers and corporates, while civil society is underrepresented.
- ‘Broader criticisms are being ignored’ during the talks, says Kelsey.
In her view, the talks will result in ‘old wine in new wineskins’.
- One of the proposals on the agenda is a permanent investment court.
According to the EU, this will address ‘all concerns’. Professor Van Harten
says, however, that a permanent court could end up ‘institutionalising
[ISDS] without addressing the key flaws’.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20190411/d6d5ccd9/attachment.html>
More information about the PHM-Exchange
mailing list