Obama and the TPP: Poll #1

[JDPriestly]

64. I have too. That's why I do not like the free trade agreements that set up special courts.

It is OK to have an international court in which nations or nationalities or humans can bring cases. But it is not OK to have a court in which a corporation can sue a nation. It is just an insane idea that is incompatible with the idea of nation-states and the reality of how corporations come into being.

Corporations are artificial entities created by individuals within nation-states. They have only the rights granted them by the nation-state in which they are registered. And they may be registered and operating in many nation-states. It is insane to think that they should have the right to appear in an international court to air grievance against the nation- states that allow them to exist and to do business within their physical borders.

A corporation operates within a country only with approval and license of that country. By definition and I should hope always by law, a corporation has to comply with the laws of any and all countries in which it operates. It should have the ability to challenge the laws of any country only if that country allows it to bring its grievance within the country that the corporation claims caused its injury. It just makes no sense whatsoever that corporations can have a court in which they can sue nations about the corporations' losses or laws that the country passes. If a corporation does not want to comply with a country's laws, it should not operate or sell its goods in that country.

The idea that a corporation can challenge a law passed by a country in some sort of international court that is not bound to enforce the law of the country in which the dispute arose is just way beyond absurd.