Free Republic

The TPP, like many treaties before it, embraces the Investor-State Dispute Settlement process (ISDS), which allows corporate actors to sue sovereign nations to seek compensation for rules or regulations that impede the corporation’s ability to maximize profits. Unlike national courts that commonly allow corporations to sue to recoup actual investments, ISDS insists that corporations be compensated for expected profits, sometimes profits they anticipate decades into the future. The ISDS process is one-sided and undemocratic. Corporate claims against sovereign states are heard in special courts overseen by a handful of judges, most of whom are corporate lawyers. Once the ISDS panel...