‘Litigation terrorism’: the obscure tool that corporations are using against green laws | Arthur Neslen

Investor-State Dispute Settlements are legal, huge and often hush-hush - and fossil fuel firms and others are using them to hold the planet to ransom

• How a US mining firm sued Mexico for billions - for trying to protect its own seabed

What do you get if you cross the planet's richest 1%, a global legal system adapted to their investment whims, and the chance to squeeze billions from governments? The answer is Investor-State Dispute Settlements", or ISDS, alternatively dubbed litigation terrorism" by Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel prize-winning economist. ISDS is a corporate tribunal system, where a panel of unelected lawyers decides whether a company is owed compensation if the actions of national governments leave its assets stranded".

In hearings, which are often held behind closed doors, ISDS documents, claims, awards, settlements - even the content of cases - need not be made public, regardless of any public-interest considerations.