Reprinted from Campaign For America's Future
ame>BuzzFeed is running a very important investigative series called "Secrets of a Global Super Court." It describes what they call "a parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else."
Existing "trade" agreements like NAFTA allow corporations to sue governments for passing laws and regulations that limit their profits. They set up special "corporate courts" in which corporate attorneys decide the cases. These corporate "super courts" sit above governments and their own court systems, and countries and their citizens cannot even appeal the rulings.
The 2014 post "Corporate Courts -- A Big Red Flag On "Trade" Agreements" explained the origin and rationale for these corporate courts:
"Picture a poor 'banana republic' country ruled by a dictator and his cronies. A company might want to invest in a factory or railroad -- things that would help the people of that country as well as deliver a return to the company. But the company worries that the dictator might decide to just seize the factory and give it to his brother-in-law. ... Agreements to protect investors, and allowing a tribunal not based in such countries (courts where the judges are cronies of the dictator), make sense in such situations."
Here's the thing: Corporate investors see themselves as legitimate "makers" and see citizens and voters and their governments -- always demanding taxes and fair pay and public safety -- to be illegitimate "takers." Corporations are all about "one-dollar-one-vote" top-down systems of governance. They consider "one-person-one-vote" democracy to be an illegitimate, non-functional system that meddles with their more-important profit interests. They consider any governmental legal or regulatory system to be "burdensome." They consider taxes as "theft" of the money they have "earned."
To them, any government anywhere is just another "banana republic" from which they need special protection.
"Trade" Deals Bypass Borders
Investors and their corporations have set up a way to get around the borders of these meddling governments, called "trade" deals. The trade deals elevate global corporate interests above any national interest. When a country signs a "trade" deal, that country is agreeing not to do things that protect the country's own national interest -- like impose tariffs to protect key industries or national strategies, or pass laws and regulations -- when those things interfere with the larger, more important global corporate "trade" interests.
Now, corporations are pushing two new "trade" agreements -- one covering Pacific-area countries and one covering Atlantic-area countries -- that expand these corporate rights and move governments out of their way. The Pacific agreement is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Atlantic one is called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Secrets of a Global Super Court
BuzzFeed's series on these corporate courts, "Secrets of a Global Super Court," explains the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the "trade" deals that have come to dominate the world economy. These provisions set up "corporate courts" that place corporate profits above the interests of governments and set up a court system that sits above the court systems of the countries in the "trade" deals.
Part One, "Inside The Global "Club" That Helps Executives Escape Their Crimes," describes, "A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape punishment."
"In a little-noticed 2014 dissent, US Chief Justice John Roberts warned that ISDS arbitration panels hold the alarming power to review a nation's laws and 'effectively annul the authoritative acts of its legislature, executive, and judiciary.' ISDS arbitrators, he continued, 'can meet literally anywhere in the world' and 'sit in judgment' on a nation's 'sovereign acts.'
[. . .]
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
