More Than 100 Legal Scholars Warn About TPP Dangers

By Dave Johnson

March 2015--One hundred law professors sent an open letter to Congress and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) saying they need to "protect the rule of law and the nation's sovereignty" in trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

While TPP is still secret, leaks and precedent indicate that it will contain provisions allowing giant, multinational corporations to bypass our country's legal system.

These provisions will allow these multinational corporations to sue governments, including ours, in "corporate courts" if they decide to pass laws and regulations that restrain the profits of these giant corporations, such as efforts to help citizens quit smoking.

The provisions in question are called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and let corporations take cases to a tribunal made up of corporate attorneys instead of civil courts.

These attorneys will then decide if countries have passed laws or imposed regulations, including health, environmental, labor, consumer and other protections that cause these companies to lose profits.

The law professors' letter asks Congress and the USTR to ensure that language is not included in proposed trade agreements like the TPP.

The letter concludes:

ISDS threatens domestic sovereignty by empowering foreign corporations to bypass domestic court systems and privately enforce terms of a trade agreement.

It weakens the rule of law by removing the procedural protections of the justice system and using an unaccountable, unreviewable system of adjudication.

The scholars' statement is available online here and the letter itself is also available.

The letter was organized and released by the Alliance for Justice.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. 

It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source. 

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This is downright frightening, especially in a one-political party system like we're experiencing in this country right now. We don't have checks and balances at the moment. Only the President's VETO PEN. Let's hope it isn't filled with disappearing ink!  

It was almost with a sense of superiority that Bush would deny the fact that this country tortures. The fact that we subcontract the dirty deed doesn't make it any more palatable.

The Editor

Truth, Torture and The American Way

By Jennifer Harbury

Jennifer Harbury's investigation into torture began when her husband disappeared in Guatemala in 1992; she told the story of his torture and murder in Searching for Everardo. 

For over a decade since, Harbury has used her formidable legal, research, and organizing skills to press for the U.S. government's disclosure of America's involvement in harrowing abuses in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

A draft of this book had just been completed when the first photos from Abu Ghraib were published; tragically, many of Harbury's deepest fears about America's own abuses were graphically confirmed by those horrific images.

This urgently needed book offers both well-documented evidence of the CIA's continuous involvement in torture tactics since the 1970s and moving personal testimony from many of the victims.

Most important, Harbury provides solid, convincing arguments against the use of torture in any circumstances: not only because it is completely inconsistent with all the basic values Americans hold dear, but also because it has repeatedly proved to be ineffective. Again and again,'information' obtained through these gruesome tactics proves unreliable or false.

Worse, the use of torture by U.S. client states, allies, and even by our own operatives, endangers our citizens and especially our troops deployed internationally.

Do you feel like spitting nails?
It is the reputation of THIS country that has been trashed by the vice president and president at the time. Flushing the Koran was pure spite. The shameful behavior made no sense. At no time were we losing the "war of choice." The behavior was inexcusable.