Despite the growing evidence that corporate sovereignty clauses in international treaties pose considerable risks to nations that sign them, such „investor-state dispute settlement“ (ISDS) mechanisms are present in both TPP and TAFTA/TTIP — at least as far as we know: it‘s hard to be sure given the obsessive secrecy surrounding them.

South Africa has experienced first hand the reality of those bland-sounding systems and the behind-closed-doors tribunals that implement them. Here‘s what happened when it set about transforming the country after apartheid, as this column on the South African Independent Online site explains: