Amid TPP Fight, El Salvador Mining Case Shows Danger of Corporate Tribunals

[JDPriestly]

3. This case has been going on for 6 years at unbelievably enormous

cost for the not very rich and not very big country of El Salvador.

The point for Pacific Brim in bringing this litigation is not necessarily to win in court but to push El Salvador into a generous settlement. You see litigation is not always about who is right and who is wrong. Sometimes it is about revenge, and perhaps in this case about pushing a small country around and punishing it for standing up for the rights of its people. I don't know the case well enough to be sure, but I do know what I am talking about with litigation. The cost of defending a case can push a party to settle even when that party knows it is right.

Corporations should insure themselves against losses when they invest through hedges and other means. They should not be able to go to an international court as Pacific Brim is doing. El Salvador is a sovereign nation that should be able to act in the best interests of its people without being harassed by some snicker-doodle corporation that has more money than common sense.