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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.

Big Tobacco puts Uruguay on trial
22-Oct-2014 Central Telegraph
Uruguay files its defence against Philip Morris, a test case for big business lawsuits that could hit the EU through the transatlantic trade and investment deal with the US.
Trans-Pacific Partnership piles up challenges for democracy
21-Oct-2014 The Conversation
The US is again driving the TPP agenda on behalf of its major export industries, but the TPP proposals are more extreme than the Australia-US FTA, writes Pat Ranald.
EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht warns ’no TTIP without ISDS’
17-Oct-2014 IBT
The European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has warned that there will be no free trade agreement between the EU and US without the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause.
Indonesia challenges Australian cigarette packaging laws
16-Oct-2014 Wall Street Journal
Tobacco producers Indonesia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras and Ukraine are challenging Australia’s plain-packaging laws at the World Trade Organization, bolstering support for Philip Morris’ private dispute against Canberra.
EU-Singapore investment talks concluded, says EU Trade Chief
16-Oct-2014 EU Trade Insights
The European Union and Singapore have finally concluded negotiations over a bilateral investment agreement, EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht has told EU Trade Insights in an exclusive interview.
Smoke screen: One industry carve-out won’t solve the problem of corporate courts
15-Oct-2014 AFL-CIO
According to recent reports, US trade negotiators for the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal are floating a proposal to prevent tobacco companies from using corporate courts to sue national governments over anti-smoking regulations.
ConocoPhillips files for arbitration against PDVSA for contractual compensation
12-Oct-2014
ConocoPhillips announced Friday that it has filed for arbitration under the rules of the International Chamber of Commerce or ICC against Petroleos de Venezuela or PDVSA, the Venezuela state oil company, for contractual compensation related to the Petrozuata and Hamaca heavy crude oil projects.
Tobacco raises TPP concerns
11-Oct-2014 Politico
US trade officials have denied they plan to offer a new tobacco proposal in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks in Australia later this month.
Why climate litigation could soon go global
11-Oct-2014 Globe and Mail
Climate change is already causing about $600-billion in damages annually, gobally. Oil and gas companies could soon find themselves on the hook for at least part of the damage.
The arbitration game
10-Oct-2014 Economist
Governments are souring on treaties to protect foreign investors
Venezuela ordered to pay Exxon $1.6 bln for nationalization
10-Oct-2014 Reuters
A World Bank arbitration tribunal on Thursday ordered Venezuela to pay Exxon Mobil Corp around $1.6 billion to compensate for the 2007 nationalization of its oil projects in the country.
Canada braces for EU trade pact dispute with Germany
8-Oct-2014 Bloomberg
Canada is bracing for a dispute with Germany over whether its newly-agreed free trade pact with the European Union should be re-opened to erase arbitration clauses.
War, neoliberal fundamentalism and the plundering of national economies
7-Oct-2014 Global Research
The real threats to ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, ‘decency’ and ‘fairness’ do not lie in Syria or Iraq. The destruction of national sovereignty, democracy, freedom, decency, quality of life and livelihoods is being carried out by corporate vultures under the guise of the secular theology of neoliberalism, not least in practice via free trade and investor rights agreements.
The trade clause that overrules governments
6-Oct-2014 Washington Post
The Obama administration’s insistence on ISDS may please Wall Street, but it threatens to undermine some of the president’s landmark achievements in curbing pollution and fighting global warming.
Make no mistake, the TTIP is a move in the wrong direction
6-Oct-2014 The Conversation
While it would be wrong to say that the TTIP will lead to the wholesale privatisation of public services, it would potentially constrain governments’ ability to reverse past policy decisions to open up public services to competition as this would become a treaty-based commitment.
Washington court rules in Hungary’s favor in cancelled casino investment case
3-Oct-2014 Politics.hu
An ICSID arbitration panel rules in favour of Hungary against US/Israeli investors seeking €300 million in compensation for a failed casino project.
New report takes on Obama administration defense of ISDS
2-Oct-2014 Public Citizen
The Obama administration’s precarious justifications for the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) regime may determine the fate of the transatlantic free trade agreement, said Public Citizen.
Opposing sides on investor question face off at US-EU trade talks
2-Oct-2014 dpa
Groups opposed to a clause of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that they say is overly favorable to investors took their complaints to negotiators Wednesday outside Washington.
Six steps to protect Canadians from flaws in China trade deal
1-Oct-2014 The Tyee
Trade treaty expert Van Harten lays out ways FIPA governments can ’disclose, monitor, and limit the harm done by this treaty.’
UNASUR dispute settlement centre will start operating in 2015
30-Sep-2014 El Telégrafo
Next year, the South American Union of Nations (UNASUR) dispute settlement centre will start operating, announced the UNASUR Secretary General