On 26 March 2020, Italy’s coronavirus death toll surpassed 8,000 – then over twice the number seen anywhere else in the world. Morgues were overflowing with coffins and hospitals had long stopped accepting any non-emergency patients as doctors were fighting to save lives. “I have never seen anything like this,” one of them told a reporter. “You think everything is fine. Then, when it gets into the lungs, it convinces the body to fight so much, we end up killing our own bodies.”
On the same day, lawyers of Italian law firm ArbLit published an article entitled “Could COVID-19 emergency measures give rise to investment claims? First reflections from Italy”. Instead of worrying about Italy’s record coronavirus death toll, the lawyers pondered whether the Italian government’s “hastily drawn-up and ill-coordinated” measures to curb the spread of the virus and lessen its economic impact, “may well fall within the scope of… investment treaties… between Italy and other states, paving the way for damages claims brought by foreign investors against Italy.”
A parallel justice system for the rich
Globally, thousands of trade and investment agreements give sweeping powers to foreign investors, including the peculiar privilege to sue states in an arbitration court system
— source longreads.tni.org | Pia Eberhardt | 19 May 2020