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"ISDS is really a legal system of the rich, by the rich, for the rich... You cannot say that you want to end neoliberalism and leave this system in place."

 Speaking at a national day of action organised alongside War on Want, Friends of the Earth, and the Trade Justice Movement, Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now delivered an urgent warning on the shadow corporate courts threatening democracy, climate targets, and public ownership.

Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses—secretive tribunals originally devised by post-war oil barons and financial oligarchs to discipline former colonies—allow multinational corporations to bypass domestic legal systems and sue sovereign governments for billions over public-interest policies. Today, this neo-colonial mechanism has turned into a speculative business model for hedge funds and global investors, directly threatening climate legislation, environmental bans, and national public services.

From offshore investors launching an ISDS claim after campaigners successfully stopped a coal mine in Cumbria, to Jingye Steel threatening action over British Steel, to the imminent risk of foreign water conglomerates suing if Thames Water is brought back into public hands, these corporate courts are actively locking neoliberal economics into place.

While sustained grassroots pressure previously pushed the UK to exit the Energy Charter Treaty—and countries across the Global South have torn up their ISDS agreements—the British government continues to quietly slip these clauses into post-Brexit trade deals, including recent pacts with the Gulf.

The demand to Parliament, the Business Secretary, and the Foreign Secretary is unambiguous: stop inserting ISDS into new trade deals, scrap the existing treaties on the books, and dismantle a toxic system designed to override democratic sovereignty and the public good.

#StopCorporateCourts #NoISDS #GlobalJusticeNow #TradeJustice #ClimateAction
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