bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

health


A new trend in trade agreements: Ensuring access to cancer drugs
People around the world need to be aware of precedents in recent trade agreements and ensure that they also work for access to medicines for their own citizens.
COVID-19 and the risk of foreign investor challenges
Tensions are likely to surface between the public-policy directions of governments managing a challenging economic climate and foreign investors’ private interests.
Investor-state claims in era of COVID-19 pandemic
With state measures in response to COVID-19 being compounded by an already difficult economic environment for investors, they may have little choice but to challenge those measures.
Investor-state disputes arising from COVID-19: balancing public health and corporate wealth
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments globally are engaging in a difficult balancing act of protecting public health, mitigating economic damage and avoiding interference with private rights.
Juggling crisis
Latin America’s battle with COVID-19 hampered by investment arbitration cases.
BITs and bonds: The international law and economics of sovereign debt
Recent jurisdictional decisions suggest that sovereign debt will be subject to bilateral investment treaties for the foreseeable future.
ISDS enables making more money from losses
Predatory international law firms are encouraging multimillion-dollar investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) lawsuits citing Covid-19 containment, relief and recovery measures.
The Covid-19 pandemic and liability under investment treaties
COVID-19 can increase liability for countries under international investment treaties. Developing countries face imminent challenges under such treaties.
A Canadian mining company is threatening to sue Mexico to avoid paying taxes... and is asking Canada to help them do it
Already, Mexico’s progressive reforms have made it an ISDS target. First Majestic, a Canadian silver mining company has been threatening Mexico for the last few years, under NAFTA’s Chapter 11.
Will the new NAFTA make the pandemic worse for Mexicans?
For Mexican workers, farmers, and the poor, the pandemic and the new treaty replacing NAFTA are a devastating one-two punch.
Corporations to sue states for pandemic billions
Corporations are busy weaponising obscure legal instruments to sue government for their actions to save lives and jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
Revisiting BITs in the wake of Covid-19
Amidst the global risk of ISDS claims, it is incumbent to shed light on Bangladesh’s BIT structure and its feasibility to confront ISDS claims in the backdrop of Covid-19 regulatory space.
Civil society groups sound alarm over COVID-19 claims in ’corporate courts’
Countries could be facing a wave of cases from transnational corporations suing governments over actions taken to respond to the Covid pandemic using a system known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Some 630 organisations from across the world, representing hundreds of millions of people, are calling on governments in an open letter to urgently take action to shut down this threat.
Potential ISDS problems post Covid-19
The Transpacific Partnership Agreement involves investor - state dispute settlement clauses, which large companies may use ISDS to sue governments for actions they took to stop the spread of the virus.
Why we have to protect the NHS from trade deals
Without real protection for the NHS in any future trade agreement, we can only see bad news for patients, taxpayers and Health Boards around the country.
To get out of the crisis exacerbated by Covid-19: more than a hundred organizations and networks in the Arab region are launching a campaign for debt cancellation and getting rid of "free trade" agreements.
To get out of the crisis exacerbated by Covid-19: more than a hundred organizations and networks in the Arab region are launching a campaign for debt cancellation and getting rid of "free trade" agreements.
Open letter to governments on ISDS and COVID-19
We urge you to take immediate action to ensure that the duty of governments to regulate in the public interest is safeguarded and put beyond the scope of ISDS claims.
Africa-wide trade deal will push ahead despite coronavirus wrath
Even if the pandemic continues into 2021, the African Continental Free Trade Area will move ahead, a top official says.
Preparing for the COVID aftermath
Arbitration cases due to COVID emergency measures would exacerbate the challenges that public budgets are already facing due to the need for stimulus measures and the difficulty in collecting government revenue.
Why we need a moratorium on investment disputes during COVID-19
We call for a moratorium on investor-state arbitration cases and clarity of legal principles to ensure that governments have the policy space to protect their citizenry and combat the epidemic.