On July 3, 2014, the European Commission’s computers crashed. The commission had invited comment on investor-state arbitration, a private justice system that has inspired a global case law of unprecedented sweep. Citizens organized by 180 public interest groups bombarded Brussels with 145,000 comments voicing fierce hostility. Many scorned arbitrators as a secretive club of corporate lawyers with a vested interest to rule for foreign investors against states. Only 19 large companies, 60 trade groups and seven law firms rose to the system’s defense.
On the basis of this lopsided debate, Brussels claimed a mandate to judicialize arbitration, and create an “investment court.” It proceeded, over the past year, to formalize such a body in proposed treaties with Canada, Vietnam—and the U.S. The U.S.-EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, would govern over $1 trillion of investment in each direction.
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