Hi John,
As governments struggle to try and protect their citizens from the fallout of coronavirus, lawyers and big business are threatening to use trade deals to profiteer from this crisis. A wave of new ‘corporate court’ cases threatens to drain vital funds from the public sector, as big business tries to cash in by challenging policies introduced to protect people’s safety and jobs from the pandemic.
We must take action to stop this now. Across the world people are speaking out - 630 organisations from over 90 countries have signed an open letter calling on governments to suspend the awful corporate court system which allows big business to challenge government actions.
Can you join this international call by sending the letter to your MP?
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Corporate courts (formally known as ISDS) are written into many modern trade and investment deals, giving big business special powers to sue governments in secretive tribunals outside of the national legal system. In recent weeks we’ve seen big law firms predict a “wave of disputes that will arise in response to the COVID-19 pandemic” [1], while many others are touting their services to help corporations bring such cases. Already, multinationals in Peru have threatened to sue the government for taking measures to ease travel for essential workers by suspending road toll charges.
In the UK, lawyers are anticipating cases when different levels of government took different decisions - for instance the Scottish government and the Mayor of London ordered construction sites to close, when Westminster did not. Other countries have taken actions such as requisitioning private hospitals, freezing water gas and electricity bills, and ensuring medicines and tests are affordable.
The damage from corporate court cases can be immense, especially for countries in the global south. They impose massive financial burdens on governments at the best of times, and when countries are struggling under the burden of devastating health and economic crises, this could be overwhelming. If any meaningful action on debt relief can be secured, any benefit could be wiped out by having to pay billions to corporate courts.
We’ve been here before. In the early 2000s, Argentina was beset by economic crisis, and took emergency actions to allow its impoverished population to continue accessing water and electricity by freezing utility prices. Big business struck back, using trade deals to sue Argentina, winning tens of millions of dollars in ‘compensation’. Some of these ‘debts’ were even brought up by ‘vulture funds’ and used to harass Argentina for the best part of a decade, hampering the country’s effort to eradicate poverty.
We cannot allow this to happen again. We are calling on governments like Britain to suspend and restrict the use of corporate courts in light of the pandemic, and in the longer term to roll back the risks of corporate courts completely. The campaign has the support of international human rights experts and economists, including Jeffrey Sachs.
Governments need to act soon - they have to take these steps before the cases start coming, otherwise it will be too late. So we need to make sure parliament knows about this. Can you send the letter to your MP and ask them to urge the government to take action?
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I wrote to you a few weeks ago about this hidden danger that we were seeing from corporate courts in the pandemic. Since then I have been working with groups all across the world to bring this into the light. From Malaysia to Uganda to Argentina, it is clear to everyone how crucial this is, and together with thousands of others across the world, we can make a difference.
In solidarity,
Jean Blaylock
Campaigner at Global Justice Now
NOTES
[1] Alston & Bird, The Coming Wave of COVID-19 Arbitration – Looking Ahead
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