Other Voices: Challenging Corporate Nationhood

A conversation with:

Jesse Swanhuyser - Director and Attorney, Voice for the People

and

Sarah Burt - Staff Attorney, Earthjustice


Thanks to Citizens United, you have probably heard about the concept of “corporate personhood” — the idea that corporations enjoy the same Constitutional rights as natural born citizens. But have you heard about corporate nationhood?

Corporate nationhood is a little known threat to socio-economic justice and environmental sustainability. Chevron, Philip-Morris, Koch Industries and other multinational corporations have quietly constructed an international legal system in which they are literally as powerful as sovereign nations. Tucked into U.S. trade agreements, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system expands Citizens United beyond corporate personhood, and opens the door to a more corrosive force—corporate nationhood. ISDS allows multinationals to challenge virtually any law, using “investment tribunals” where the judges are corporate lawyers and the people rarely have a voice.

At this month’s Other Voices forum we will examine the Keystone pipeline case and a number of other corporate challenges to domestic, democratically enacted laws. And we will learn about a new strategy to challenge corporate nationhood: strategic legal engagement.

YOU ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF EVERY OTHER VOICES PROGRAM. The forum really is a conversation and that includes you. So come prepared to ask questions or share your opinions.

Other Voices Monthly Forum is held at the Midpen Media Center, where it is recorded for later broadcast on local cable television and streaming on the Internet. Previous forums (and other videos) can be seen at our YouTube Channel or the Video Page at our website.