investor-state disputes | ISDS
Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) refers to a way of handling conflicts under international investment agreements whereby companies from one party are allowed to sue the government of another party. This means they can file a complaint and seek compensation for damages. Many BITs and investment chapters of FTAs allow for this if the investor’s expectation of a profit has been negatively affected by some action that the host government took, such as changing a policy. The dispute is normally handled not in a public court but through a private abritration panel. The usual venues where these proceedings take place are the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (World Bank), the International Chamber of Commerce, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law or the International Court of Justice.
ISDS is a hot topic right now because it is being challenged very strongly by concerned citizens in the context of the EU-US TTIP negotiations, the TransPacific Partnership talks and the CETA deal between Canada and the EU.
29-May-2016
IISD
Results from an IISD expert meeting held in Montreux, Switzerland, May 23–24, 2016.
27-May-2016
New Generation Trade Blog
The new trade is something with much more weight: It’s about community power and who gets to make decisions.
26-May-2016
The Hindu
The new bilateral investment treaty’s gratuitous focus on local courts and taxation may not please our partners.
26-May-2016
ICTSD
The tribunal considered that the main and determinative reason for the 2011 restructuring was in order for the tobacco giant to bring a legal claim under the BIT Treaty, using a Hong Kong-based entity.
25-May-2016
Client Earth
The proposal would fundamentally undermine the EU’s internal market provisions and the role of the courts of the Member States and the European Court of Justice in safeguarding their operation.
24-May-2016
TNI
The Philippines has a web of investment treaties which severely constrain the government’s ability to regulate or close polluting mines, a legal straitjacket that will become even tighter if the EU–Philippines Free Trade Agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) proceed
23-May-2016
Politico
Philippine trade negotiators meet their DG Trade counterparts for a first round of trade talks, five months after they were announced, but nobody expects a cakewalk.
23-May-2016
CIGI
Canada and the European Union released a revised Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in February 2016. The revisions focus on the controversial and deeply flawed process of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS).
20-May-2016
Local Futures
The Global to Local Webinar Series addresses key issues in the global to local debate.
19-May-2016
S2B
A new leak reveals that 5 EU member states are proposing to introduce investor-to-state dispute settlement for all cross-border investments within the EU.
19-May-2016
Health Canal
“Despite the losses and defeats, tobacco companies will keep coming back for more. They will fight on regardless in order to delay and disrupt the rollout of the World Health Organization’s best-practice tobacco control measures,”
18-May-2016
IISD
The objective of the Observatory is to become a forum for the objective settlement of investment disputes with transnational corporations.
16-May-2016
Business Recorder
Argentina has agreed to pay $217 million to two energy companies in long-standing arbitration cases stemming from its 2001/02 economic crisis.
11-May-2016
Slovak Spectator
Slovakia has made a step towards reversing an arbitration ruling over the ban of generating profits on private health insurers, the Finance Ministry says.
6-May-2016
IOL
AngloGold Ashanti said it filed a dispute with Ghana at an international investor arbitration panel due to the country’s failure to protect the company’s Obuasi operation from illegal miners.
30-Apr-2016
Tele Sur
The Ecuadorean government is being forced to use money that could go toward relief efforts to instead pay off a multinational oil company.
29-Apr-2016
Politico
The Walloon Parliament voted against ratification of the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement (CETA). The parliament is worried about social and environmental norms and the investor-state arbitration system.
27-Apr-2016
The Guardian
US oil company wanted EU-US trade deal to give foreign investors the legal right to challenge government decision, documents show
26-Apr-2016
Sputnik
Les futurs tribunaux spéciaux qui régleront les litiges provoqués par le Traité transatlantique controversé TTIP présentent plus de risques que d’avantages pour les gouvernements européens.
26-Apr-2016
The Independent
This stark warning against TTIP was disclosed in response to a Freedom of Information request by anti-TTIP campaigners
