Tubo-charging investor sovereignty: investment agreements and corporate colonialism

9 February, 2006

From the introduction:

Reconstruction and construction do not take place only in bricks and mortar. Long before the first foundation stone is laid for a major pipeline, road, mine or oilfield development, the project is constructed on the hard drives of investors, built of financial spreadsheets and legal agreements. Certainly, no less effort goes into engineering these aspects than the physical project itself, and their impacts on communities and the environment can be at least as profound.

But it is here that the analogy with bricks and mortar ends. For corporate investors, the body of project and financial law is a frontier against which they continually aim to advance. Reconstruction of a country