The Secret Justice System That Lets Executives Escape Their Crimes
A parallel legal universe, open only to corporations and largely invisible to everyone else, helps executives convicted of crimes escape punishment.
Imagine a private, global super court that empowers corporations to bend countries to their will.
Say a nation tries to prosecute a corrupt CEO or ban dangerous pollution. Imagine that a company could turn to this super court and sue the whole country for daring to interfere with its profits, demanding hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars as retribution.
Imagine that this court is so powerful that nations often must heed its rulings as if they came from their own supreme courts, with no meaningful way to appeal. That it operates unconstrained by precedent or any significant public oversight, often keeping its proceedings and sometimes even its decisions secret. That the people who decide its cases are largely elite Western corporate attorneys who have a vested interest in expanding the court’s authority because they profit from it directly, arguing cases one day and then sitting in judgment another. That some of them half-jokingly refer to themselves as “The Club” or “The Mafia.”
And imagine that the penalties this court has imposed have been so crushing — and its decisions so unpredictable — that some nations dare not risk a trial, responding to the mere threat of a lawsuit by offering vast concessions, such as rolling back their own laws or even wiping away the punishments of convicted criminals.
This system is already in place, operating behind closed doors in office buildings and conference rooms in cities around the world. Known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS, it is written into a vast network of treaties that govern international trade and investment, including NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Congress must soon decide whether to ratify.
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WOW ! The Travesty of Justice system which shields and liberates every form of corruption throughout the World while aiding and abetting human rights violations !!!! Now I understand why the Investment Banks of Wall Street were allowed to steal millions of American Homes , Blame it all on the Homeowners who are not afforded the protection of the Law . Behold the ” New World Order ” !!!
It is clearer now more than ever – if you have money, you have power. If you have power you can do whatever you want. People like you and I can get arrested for traffic violations. These people get away pretty much with murder.