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.

Huffington Post | 17-May-2015
Last week, Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver gave a speech in New York arguing that the Volcker Rule — a key tenet of the US’ 2010 banking law — violates the North American Free Trade Agreement. This underscores Senator Warren’s warning that such deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Obama is currently negotiating, jeopardize financial reform.
| 15-May-2015
Labor has called on the federal government to follow the example of the Howard years and oppose the inclusion of a controversial dispute-settlement provision in trade talks with the US.
| 15-May-2015
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes hears its first case outside of US, France
| 15-May-2015
An international tribunal began hearing a multi-billion dollar case Friday that the US private equity firm Lone Star filed against South Korea’s government over tax and other disputes surrounding its asset sell-offs in Korea.
Jacobin Magazine | 15-May-2015
Opponents of the trade deal being secretly negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam have moved the discussion beyond its putative impact on jobs and growth and closer to the agreement’s broader ramifications, writes the IUF’s Peter Rossman.
EurActiv | 14-May-2015
Richard Kozul-Wright, director at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said support for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) but not for state-investor was “incongruous”.
Yonhap | 14-May-2015
An international tribunal will begin hearing a multi-billion dollar case this week that the US private equity firm Lone Star filed against South Korea’s government over tax and other disputes surrounding its asset sell-offs in Korea.
AFJ | 13-May-2015
A group of legal and economic luminaries have signed a letter to Congressional leaders urging them to oppose Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions in proposed trade deals.
UNCTAD | 13-May-2015
According to UNCTAD, 40% of all new ISDS cases in 2014 were initiated against developed countries (the historical average is 28%). A quarter of them are intra-EU disputes.
Mining Watch | 12-May-2015
In anticipation of an imminent ruling from a little-known arbitration tribunal at the World Bank that could force El Salvador to pay Canadian-Australian mining firm OceanaGold US$301 million, a Salvadoran delegation is visiting Canada to discuss how investor-state arbitration threatens democratic decision-making, public health and the environment here and beyond our borders.