STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 8 September 2014

[Demeter]

32. Investor Dispute Settlement: A Rogue Corporation in the World Bank’s Rogue Tribunal

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/09/rigged-rules-rogue-corporation-world-banks-rogue-tribunal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NakedCapitalism+%28naked+capitalism%29



On September 15, in a tribunal that few know exists, the fate of millions of people and hundreds of millions of dollars will be debated and decided in the next six months.

The tribunal is the World Bank Group’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). It sits in downtown Washington, D.C., behind security guards at the World Bank. At issue is the future of El Salvador, some 2,000 miles away, where a global mining company—Pacific Rim, now owned by Australian/Canadian corporation OceanaGold—wants to mine gold in ways that could well poison the river system serving over half the Salvadoran population.

The crime alleged by the mining company is that the government of El Salvador has not approved a mining license for it. But the real crime is that a foreign corporation is trying to stifle democracy in a country where a small landed oligarchy and U.S. intervention stifled it for so long...MORE

COMMENT FROM LAMBERT: ...surely Americans across the political spectrum would take issue with a lawsuit between the two being decided by an undemocratic, unaccountable, and secret “autonomous international institution”? What if it’s us, next?