Investor-State Disputes: Exposing Shadowy Threats to Democracy

Multinational corporations and investors have filed almost 1,000 legal cases against entire countries at an obscure branch of the World Bank. Such cases have been successfully used by corporations to circumvent environmental regulations, as well as post-apartheid policies in South Africa designed to empower black communities. Yet few of these cases have been covered, let alone investigated, by journalists.

This session will look at current and recent investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) cases, public-interest questions to ask about them and sources to help answer those questions, including databases maintained by the World Bank and UN. It will draw on investigations that Claire Provost and Matt Kennard began as CIJ fellows in 2014-2016 and that culminated in the recent publication of their book Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy (Bloomsbury 2023).