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ISDS reform

Sharpening clash as UN body reviews investor rights to sue governments (ISDS)
8-Apr-2019 AFTINET
Advocates of ISDS (industrialised countries and lawyers from the ‘arbitration industry’) dominate the running of the Working Group and its advisory bodies. Civil society is underrepresented.
Trump’s damaged NAFTA deal
5-Apr-2019 The American Prospect
USMCA bears many resemblances to NAFTA, which has been cited as a driver of low-wage corporate outsourcing.
Investor-state dispute settlement in Tanzania
12-Feb-2019 The Citizen
Tanzania has embarked on process of regulation of its foreign investment regime by enacting legislation, which exclude international arbitration.
EU’s investment court may be bump in China’s Belt and Road plan
2-Jan-2019 MENAFN
The EU has proposed to reform the investor-state-dispute-settlement system, a move that could further complicate negotiations with China over a bilateral investment agreement, as well as their dialogue on the Belt and Road Initiative’s implementation in Europe.
Keynote address by George Kahale, III
6-Nov-2018 Curtis
Combined with the dispute settlement mechanism of international arbitration, investment treaties have been transformed intol "weapons of legal destruction."
The limitations of the UNCITRAL process on ISDS reform
30-Oct-2018 SOMO
The UNCITRAL process runs a real risk of producing middle-ground solutions that will fail to address the fundamental flaws of the ISDS system and will only further institutionalise and re-legitimise the system.
More than 300 civil society organizations from 73 countries urge fundamental reform at UNCITRAL’s Investor-State Dispute Settlement discussions
30-Oct-2018
More than 300 civil society groups and trade unions urged governments participating in United Nations meetings in Vienna to completely overhaul the controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system.
’New’ CETA tribunals - old undemocratic system
24-Sep-2018 Friends of the Earth Europe
Our analysis of the leaked draft code of conduct of CETA tribunals reveals that the same people known as ISDS arbitrators and counsellors will now take over CETA tribunals.
ISDS reforms shove human rights under corporate red carpet
11-Sep-2018 APWLD
“We call on our governments to either address the real reasons why ISDS is fundamentally flawed or to abandon its ‘reform’ agenda that is designed to reinforce and re-legitimise a self-serving investment dispute system.”
Investment protection in EU Vietnam FTA
28-Aug-2018 Vietnam Briefing
Vietnam and the EU have concluded their discussions on an Investment Protection Agreement, which they decided to keep it separate from their free trade agreement.
EU-Canada (CETA) - Revised draft decisions on the appellate tribunal, the code of conduct and the rules for mediation for the implementation of the Investment Court System (EU proposal, July 2018)
10-Aug-2018
Corporate lawyers hijack UN meeting, while civil society is sidelined
28-May-2018 Truthout
The takeaway from the UNCITRAL’s process for its so-called "reform" discussions is that lawyers making millions in ISDS cases are welcomed, while the voices of the millions of people whose lives are harmed by ISDS cases brought by multinational corporations are barely an afterthought.
EU’s new trade deal with Mexico promotes CETA-style investors’ rights while ignoring human rights violations by multinationals
25-Apr-2018 TNI
A key feature of the “modernisation” process is the inclusion of a controversial investment protection chapter with the same characteristics as the one recently included in the Canada-EU trade agreement.
Negotiating directives for a Convention establishing a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes
25-Mar-2018 European Council
As released by the European Council
Multilateral investment court: Council gives mandate to the Commission to open negotiations
20-Mar-2018 European Council
The Council adopted the negotiating directives authorising the Commission to negotiate, on behalf of the EU, a convention establishing a multilateral court for the settlement of investment disputes.
Civil society recommendations for the investment chapter of the revised EU-Mexico FTA
16-Feb-2018 S2B
The undersigned organisations take the position that it is advisable to break away from the fundamentally flawed and increasingly controversial ISDS system.
Belt and Road and the battle for global investment standards
6-Feb-2018 Asia Times
A new battle is taking shape on the world scene. It sees China and the West compete in affirming their respective investment standards around the globe.
India’s proposed investment treaty terms leave foreign partners cold
19-Jan-2018 Reuters
Having cancelled investment treaties with about 50 foreign governments last year, India is struggling to convince some to accept new terms that make it harder to seek international arbitration for disputes
The crisis of legitimacy in international investment agreements and investor-state dispute settlement
9-Jan-2018 Judicial Power Project
As the turbulence in the global economy and backlash against neoliberalism continues, opposition to the international investment regime and ISDS from the left seems destined to grow.
UNCTAD’s 2017 high-level IIA conference: moving forward on addressing older-generation international investment agreements
22-Dec-2017 IISD
More than 300 experts, including high-level negotiators of international investment agreements and representatives from intergovernmental organizations, civil society, academia and the private sector convened in Geneva.