The Secret World of Investor Courts is a podcast made by the Global Justice Now Youth Network, exploring corporate power, colonialism and climate justice in the shadowy system of trade and investment deals. 

In this final episode, youth network activists Georgie, Jamie, Luise and Barasha explore how we can extract ourselves from the system of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), hearing the experience of governments who have scrapped ISDS treaties, and wins in Global Justice Now's campaigns against these corporate courts. 

You'll hear contributions from: 

Rob Davies, former Minister of Trade in South Africa, Honorary Professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town, and member of the Advisory Council on Trade and Industrial Development of the African continental free trade area.  

Nick Dearden, Director of Global Justice Now, author of Pharmanomics: How Big Pharma Destroys Global Health, and longstanding campaigner against corporate globalisation. 

For more information on Global Justice Now's trade justice campaigns, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/trade/

To learn more about our local groups and youth network, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/get-involved/act-locally/

Twitter @globaljusticeuk
Instagram @globaljusticenow

Our editor and producer was Nada Smiljanic, and our executive producer and facilitator was Jesse Lawson. Original music was composed by Femi Oriogun-Williams.

4. Ways out and wins against the ISDS regime

The Secret World of Investor Courts is a podcast made by the Global Justice Now Youth Network, exploring corporate power, colonialism and climate justice in the shadowy system of trade and investment deals. 

In this third episode, youth network activists Ranecia, Ella and Ludo explore the role that investor claims against states have in blocking, deterring or punishing climate action and communities' struggles for environmental justice. 

You'll hear contributions from: 

Rachmi Hertanti, a lawyer with a background in International Trade Law from the University of Indonesia and researcher with the Transnational Institute, long engaged in the Indonesian economic justice movement. 

For more information on Global Justice Now's trade justice campaigns, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/trade/

To learn more about our local groups and youth network, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/get-involved/act-locally/

Twitter @globaljusticeuk
Instagram @globaljusticenow

Our editor and producer was Nada Smiljanic, and our executive producer and facilitator was Jesse Lawson. Original music was composed by Femi Oriogun-Williams.

3. Corporate courts blocking climate justice

The Secret World of Investor Courts is a podcast made by the Global Justice Now Youth Network, exploring corporate power, colonialism and climate justice in the shadowy system of trade and investment deals. 

In this second episode, youth network activists Alfie, TJ, Lisa and Neve explore how investor-state dispute settlement, or "corporate courts", are structured and the injustices built in. 

You'll hear contributions from:  

Luciana Ghiotto, a researcher at the Transnational Institute specialising in trade and investment in Latin America, based in Argentina. 

Jean Blaylock, an economic justice campaigner currently coordinating the European Trade Justice Coalition. 

For more information on Global Justice Now's trade justice campaigns, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/trade/

To learn more about our local groups and youth network, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/get-involved/act-locally/

Twitter @globaljusticeuk
Instagram @globaljusticenow

Our editor and producer was Nada Smiljanic, and our executive producer and facilitator was Jesse Lawson. Original music was composed by Femi Oriogun-Williams.

2. The structural injustice of corporate courts

The Secret World of Investor Courts is a podcast made by the Global Justice Now Youth Network, exploring corporate power, colonialism and climate justice in the shadowy system of trade and investment deals. 

In this first episode, youth network activists Natalia and Misha explore the colonial origins and history of the investor-state dispute settlement regime - how we came to a world where foreign corporations can sue governments for billions in closed-door tribunals. 

You'll hear contributions from: 

Nicolás Perrone, Professor of Economic Law at the University of Valparaíso in Chile, and author Investment Treaties & the Legal Imagination: How Foreign Investors Play By Their Own Rules. 

Cleodie Rickard, trade justice campaigner at Global Justice Now.

For more information on Global Justice Now's trade justice campaigns, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/our-campaigns/trade/

To learn more about our local groups and youth network, visit: https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/get-involved/act-locally/

Twitter @globaljusticeuk
Instagram @globaljusticenow

Our editor and producer was Nada Smiljanic, and our executive producer and facilitator was Jesse Lawson. Original music was composed by Femi Oriogun-Williams.

1. The colonial origins of Investors suing States

A year ago, we saw story after story in the news about how people of a whole generation of Commonwealth citizens, who’d been living in the UK for decades were left homeless, wrongly detained, denied their legal rights and threatened with deportation. A year on from these brutal events, it’s important to understand that they didn’t just happen because some people didn’t have the ‘right documents’ – they were a direct result of the government’s horrific approach to immigration enforcement also known as the hostile environment policies instituted by Theresa May in 2012.

In this very first episode of the Global Justice Now podcast, I’ll be looking into what exactly the hostile environment policies are and how they affect people and society as a whole. We’ll also be hearing more about why they came about and what we can do to challenge them. 

Featured in this episode are campaigners, activists and policy experts from JCWI, MedAct, ABC Schools, Liberty, Migrants Organise and Global Justice Now.

Music: Creepy Delta Ship by Sro @ Free Music Archive

Episode 1: What is the 'hostile environment'?

We are a democratic social justice organisation working as part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.

Episode 1: What is the 'hostile environment'?

Global Justice Now Podcast

Recent comments

Heather Chambers

Related tracks