As their name suggests, corporate sovereignty chapters in trade deals are problematic in part because they place corporations on the same level as nations, allowing the former to sue the latter in special tribunals outside national courts. What‘s particularly troubling is that companies are now claiming that basic democratic functions, like passing laws promoting health, should be considered a form of „expropriation“, because future corporate profits are reduced. That effectively turns investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) into a downward regulatory ratchet that makes it very difficult — or at least very expensive — to bring in any new regulations that reduce profits for some business sector.