litiges investisseurs-état | ISDS

Le mécanisme de règlement des différends entre investisseurs et États (RDIE ou ISDS, selon son sigle anglais) désigne une modalité d’arbitrage des conflits émergeant dans le cadre d’accords d’investissement internationaux selon laquelle les entreprises de l’une des parties sont autorisées à poursuivre en justice le gouvernement de l’autre partie. Ceci signifie qu’elles peuvent porter plainte et réclamer des dommages et intérêts. De nombreux traités d’investissement bilatéraux et chapitres sur l’investissement d’ALE incluent des dispositions autorisant ce mécanisme si les bénéfices escomptés par l’investisseur ont été négativement affectés par une mesure prise par le pays hôte, telle que le changement d’une politique publique. Le différend est généralement arbitré non pas par un tribunal public, mais par une cour privée. Ces affaires sont généralement traitées par le Centre international pour le règlement des différends relatifs aux investissements (Banque mondiale), la Chambre de commerce internationale, la Commission des Nations Unies sur le droit commercial ou la Cour internationale de justice.

Le RDIE est un sujet qui suscite à l’heure actuelle un vif intérêt car il cristallise une forte opposition de la part de citoyens préoccupés par les négociations du TTIP entre l’UE et les États-Unis, les discussions sur l’Accord de partenariat transpacifique et l’Accord économique et commercial global entre le Canada et l’UE.

Huffington Post | 17-mai-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-mai-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-mai-2015
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes hears its first case outside of US, France
| 15-mai-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-mai-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-mai-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-mai-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-mai-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-mai-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-mai-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.