Rethinking Trade with Lori Wallach | 23 December 2023

Out with the old: ISDS & charting a new future

In our latest episode, we have two very special guests - voices you will know - talking about a corporate trade power tool that definitely should be on the “out with the old” list!

We’re talking about Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and its implications for our economies and democracies. First, a quick refresher:

What is ISDS?

ISDS grants foreign investors special rights and privileges, allowing them to sue governments outside of domestic courts. These suits often result in staggering compensations for corporations, all while undermining public policies.

ISDS has to go.

That’s why we teamed up with Nobel-winning economist Prof. Joseph Stiglitz and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), our guests on this podcast, to release a paper that we co authored with experts from Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the Center for the Advancement of the Rule of Law in the Americas at Georgetown University Law Center, about how we can exit out of ISDS in the Americas.