“Multilateral Investment Court: an utterly flawed and unjust system”, 12 Oct 2017

[T]he European Commission]’s] project…called Multilateral Investment Court…would allow corporations to sue governments on the basis of trade and investment agreements that afford them far-reaching rights.

… [It] proposes…institutionalising ISDS [Investor-State Dispute Settlement] by paying a fixed salary instead of hiring arbitrators on a case-by-case basis, installing an appeal body and ensuring that negotiations cannot be held in secret anymore…Yet… only foreign investors would be allowed to raise claims against states. People or countries harmed by the investor would have no recourse to international legal instruments…. [Its ruling would be enforceable]

…[This] model…has been included in trade agreements with Canada and Vietnam and is being proposed in trade negotiations with other countries… [R]ecent research has shown [that] ISDS has not led to increased foreign direct investment…

With the recent publication of the draft mandate for the Multilateral Investment Court, the ball is now in the courts of the EU member states and the national parliaments…