erosion of sovereignty

[low_delta]

A long article about NAFTA's Chapter 11:
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7076
from Public Citizen

Excerpt:
However, the majority of the investor-to-state cases filed to date have had little to do with the seizure of property NAFTA supporters feared. Instead, the cases challenge environmental laws, regulations and government decisions at the national, state and local level:

• The California-based Metalclad company successfully challenged the denial of a construction permit by a Mexican municipality for the building of a toxic waste facility;
  
  
• Environmental and health bans of suspected toxins have been challenged, with one case already resulting in reversal of a Canadian government ban on the gasoline additive MMT;
  
  
• Canada's implementation of two international environmental agreements has been successfully challenged, and Canada will soon be ordered to pay damages to U.S. investors in both cases;
  
  
• Foreign corporations have taken two lawsuits they lost in U.S. domestic courts to be "reheard" in the NAFTA investor-to-state system, one challenging the concept of sovereign immunity regarding a contract dispute with the City of Boston and the other challenging the rules of civil procedure, the jury system and a damage award in a Mississippi state court contract case;
  
  
• The American company, United Parcel Service (UPS), has filed a suit challenging the governmental provision of parcel and courier services by the Canadian postal service; and
  
  
• A Canadian steel fabrication company challenged a federal "Buy America" law for highway construction projects in the U.S.