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Littleredcorvette ago

PART 4

The arbitration courts themselves are a complete farce. Arbitrators are not sitting judges with public authority, as would be the case in national judicial systems, but rather a small group of corporate lawyers appointed ad hoc and prone to making business-friendly judgments. Courts meet secretly and Arbitrators have already been accused of so many incorrect applications of the law, that even those favorable to international arbitration, admit That the idea has already lost all its credibility. A public statement, signed by more than 50 law professors and other academics, demanded that the system be abolished and the right of decision returned to the national courts.

When included in bilateral investment treaties or other free trade agreements, ISDS has caused considerable damage to public policies and democracy. Some of the most notable examples include:

1) The Swedish company Vattenfall is demanding from the German government a compensation of € 3.7 billion due to the official policy of gradually reducing the use of nuclear energy as a result of the Fukushima disaster. Vattenfall had previously been successful in the city of Hamburg, as their complaints led to a loosening of the city's environmental standards.

2) In the first of many ISDS cases filed against Canada under NAFTA, a complaint by the American company Ethyl led the Canadian government to repeal the ban on the MMT fuel additive. In a later case concerning water and wood use rights, Canada was required to pay $ 122 million to the Canadian firm AbitibiBowater, a paper manufacturer with an office in the United States, and was using NAFTA to process its own government.

3) Cigarette giant Phillip Morris is suing the Australian government for billions of dollars because of the official health policy, which dictates that cigarettes should be sold in plain packaging. Phillip Morris is also suing Uruguay over official anti-smoking measures, according to which anti-smoking illustrations are expected to cover 80 percent of the surface of cigarette packs sold in the country.

4) No State was more affected by cases of ISDS than Argentina, especially due to the end of the fixed exchange policy in 2002. In October 2013, after many years of judicial battle, the Argentine government was forced to indemnify five companies In more than 500 million dollars.

5) Ecuador was ordered to pay Occidental Petroleum $ 1.77 billion - the highest amount ever paid in an ISDS case - for breaking the contract with the oil giant when it violated Ecuadorian law. However, a special court denied Ecuador a $ 19 billion compensation that was to be paid by Chevron for two decades of Amazonian forest contamination. References: (not included due to banned domain-see link in part I for references.)