There is a wide angry campaign against investor state dispute settlement clauses in multilateral trade agreements, especially those negotiated in TTIP and CETA. I feel however that the more information the anti TTIP campaigns put out there, the more confused the message gets. I thought therefore of offering a short, simple explanation on why you should oppose ISDS.

Investor arbitration is a useful tool in attracting investment in jurisdictions where the dispute resolution system is inadequate in dealing with complex legal problems. This may be due to institutional deficiencies or concerns as to partiality. None of this is of any relevance to developed western countries.

This not why you should oppose ISDS however. The reason is that Courts have to take into account public policy considerations. Investment tribunals do not. As a citizen therefore you have no interest in handing dispute resolution over major state-corporate deals to a body that does not have to worry itself with the common good.