Investor-state dispute settlement mechanism: The Trojan horse of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its practical implications

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an ambitious free trade agreement that the United States initially negotiated with 11 other countries (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, and Vietnam). The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism provided in the TPP is being criticised by public health activists as a pro-investor mechanism which empowers foreign corporations to sue governments for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in a wide range of cases if they adopt any new law or regulation that negatively affects the profit rates of these corporations. This article seeks to answer the following questions related to the ISDS mechanism in the TPP