Global Justice Now | 10 August 2025

Britain sued in ‘corporate court’ over quashing of coal mine in Cumbria

• Claimants are being represented by Conservative MP and former attorney general Geoffrey Cox
• Lawsuit is the first known case under Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) against the UK since 2006 proceeding to arbitration, and the first ISDS case brought against it in response to a climate policy

The British government is being sued in a so-called ‘corporate court’ by an investor in the now abandoned Cumbria coal mine. The coal mine was quashed by the High Court less than a year ago over concerns around carbon emissions, and following large scale environmental mobilisations against it. Investors behind the project are now using the UK’s investment treaty with Singapore to sue the government.

The exact details of the latest challenge are not yet clear. The claimants are being represented by Conservative MP and former attorney general Geoffrey Cox.

Campaigners have long warned that these ad hoc international tribunals, written into trade or investment agreements, are deeply undemocratic: allowing foreign investors a bespoke legal process to challenge governments for actions they regard as ‘unfair’. In 2023, a United Nations report described ISDS as “unjust, undemocratic and dysfunctional”, and recommended states withdraw their consent to arbitration under investment treaties.

Officially known as Investor State Dispute Settlement or ISDS, the system has increasingly been used to challenge necessary climate action. ISDS tends to particularly benefit investors who are registered offshore for tax purposes, as multinationals can ‘treaty shop’ via letterbox companies – companies where the management and operations are located in a different jurisdiction to that of the company’s legal registration – to make use of a country’s investment deal. Over $100 billion in public money has been awarded to corporations through ISDS to date, with fossil fuel companies the biggest beneficiaries, raking in over $80 billion since 1998.

Last year the Conservative government withdrew from the most litigated ISDS agreement, the Energy Charter Treaty, citing its risks to UK net zero efforts. However, it failed to take steps with other exiting states to annul the sunset clause, meaning investors can still use it for up to 20 years. This is despite legal advice revealing that no new legislation would be needed to ratify and implement such an agreement.

Moreover, the current Labour government has refused to rescind the system as a whole, going so far as to include a new ISDS provision in its ongoing negotiations around a new bilateral investment treaty with India. Its recently released Trade Strategy has also stated that it will continue inserting ISDS into future trade deals. This may potentially open up the UK to further lawsuits, and impede progress towards necessary climate action.

Cleodie Rickard, trade campaign manager at Global Justice Now said:

We’ve been calling on the government to scrap ISDS in its trade deals for years, to stop exactly this eventuality: fossil fuel companies suing us over necessary climate action.

“These corporate courts mean that when governments or courts make the right decision, like halting the Cumbria coal mine, foreign corporations have the power to threaten the government in highly secretive processes. If they win, they get to pass their losses from obsolete projects onto the taxpayer.

“This has to be a wake up call. The UK must finally remove this deeply undemocratic system from all its trade and investment deals and untie this straitjacket on our climate action.”

Chris Rowley of South Lakes Action on Climate Change said:

SLACC is very disappointed to see this attempt to sue the UK taxpayer after their proposed coal mine was refused an extraction licence and its planning application was quashed by the UK High Court. Its very hard to see what valid grounds West Cumbria Mining might have, and worrying that this might all take place behind closed doors. We hope that the UK Government will oppose this claim as strongly as they can.”

Notes to editor

• Global Justice Now is a UK-based campaigning organisation part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.
• Details of the case were lodged with the International Centre for Investment Disputes on 8 August 2025 and can be viewed here: https://icsid.worldbank.org/cases/case-database/case-detail?CaseNo=ARB/25/37
• Read Global Justice Now’s 2019 briefing, ‘The case against corporate courts’, here: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/resource/case-against-corporate-courts/