Investment protection mechanisms give corporations the right to sue states if they take any measures – including public interest legislation – that might threaten profits. Wellknown versions of this is the Investor state-dispute mechanism (ISDS) which after rising controversy and critisism has been replaced by the Investment court system (ICS). Investment protection mechanisms are included in most new FTAs. Nevertheless, several governments are starting to reconsider their commitments to it as they recognize the danger that it poses to their sovereignty. TNI has produced extensive research highlighting how investment protection gives corporations far-reaching rights that curtail governments’ sovereignty and drain limited public budgets. It has also revealed the big stakes the legal industry has in these mechanisms.
Public Services in the Crosshairs
The impacts of investment protection regimes on the public services sector in Latin America and the Caribbean
Bilateral Investment Treaties
Investment Protection
This report shows how Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) endanger public services in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by mapping sector-related claims brought by foreign investors. It is intended to foster debate on how to break free from the investment protection system by presenting examples of countries in LAC and beyond have reviewed their BITs.
Profiting from injustice
How law firms, arbitrators and financiers are fuelling an investment arbitration boom
TTIP
Free Trade Agreements
Bilateral Investment Treaties
Investment Protection
Just Investments
Reportby
Cecilia Olivet
Pia Eberhardt
Publication date:
Red Carpet Courts
10 stories of how the rich and powerful hijacked justice
Free Trade Agreements
Investment Protection
Reportby
Lora Verheecke
Pia Eberhardt
Cecilia Olivet
Sam Cossar-Gilbert
Publication date:
Profiting from Crisis
How corporations and lawyers are scavenging profits from Europe’s crisis countries
TTIP
Free Trade Agreements
Bilateral Investment Treaties
Trade
Investment Protection
Reportby
Cecilia Olivet
Pia Eberhardt
Publication date:
RCEP: A secret deal
Trade talks fail the transparency and public participation test
Free Trade Agreements
Reportby
Rachel Tansey
Sam Cossar-Gilbert
Publication date:
The Problem with Global Trade
Podcast
Investment Protection, in conversation with Luciana Ghiotto
Many poor countries sign trade agreements with the desperate hope of attracting investment from their wealthy counterparts. However, these agreements, or treaties, tend to have some very problematic clauses, which often lead to trouble down the road. Investors have used these treaties to sue countries for any actions, such as changes in policy, that they perceive to be a threat to their projected profits. And they don’t sue in the national courts either, but in a special parallel system that seems to always favour the foreign investors. Countries have had to use billions in taxpayer money, to pay these investors, at the expense of their own development.
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