#occupy #ows #p2 #p21 #tlot #tcot #teaparty #union #iww Smoke Screen: One Industry Carve-Out Won’t Solve the Problem of Corporate Courts http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Smoke-Screen-One-Industry-Carve-Out-Won-t-Solve-the-Problem-of-Corporate-Courts According to recent reports (behind a paywall), U.S. trade negotiators for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal are floating a proposal to prevent tobacco companies from using corporate courts to sue national governments over anti-smoking regulations. The TPP would give multinational corporations access to a special legal procedure called investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS). ISDS allows foreign investors to directly sue national governments over measures they think harm current or even future profits. Instead of using the domestic procedures that citizens and local businesses use (national courts, administrative hearings, etc.) foreign investors instead would bring claims to private international arbitration panels that can potentially award vast sums of taxpayer money in compensation...