Ceta: Ireland’s proposed ratification of EU-Canada trade deal unconstitutional, Supreme Court rules – The Irish Times

7 comments

  1. Potentially this means CETA ratification will require a referendum in Ireland – which will probably fail. We will need to see the full decision.

  2. CETA continues to be proof that making a trade deal as an equal partner with the EU is an utter waste of time. How many years has it been now?

  5. The article does a poor job of explaining what is at issue here.

    The treaty allows private corporations to have a parallel court system of “Investor Courts” that are allowed to claim large sums of money from taxpayers. This will be separate from the court system everyone else uses. Furthermore, there is no power of oversight of this parallel court system, and no way to exit it.

    Here’s a [better explanation](https://www.maynoothuniversity.ie/research/spotlight-research/why-eu-and-canadas-ceta-deal-not-just-another-treaty).

  6. > … are a real threat to the Irish Government’s ability to bring progressive legislation in terms of the environment, workers’ rights, housing and a huge range of areas

    That ship sailed when Ireland joined the EU.

  7. >The creation of a tribunal system under Ceta, with power to make enforceable decisions on disputes between Canadian investors and EU member states, creates a “parallel jurisdiction” in breach of Article 34,

    Oh, for the love of…so what about all the preceeding EU free trade agreements that also made use of ISDS and depended upon a ratification from Ireland? Are *their* ratifications now invalid too?

    EDIT: If Viktor Orbán ever gets it in his head to have the Hungarian constitutional court start “unratifying” previous EU FTAs as leverage in his spat with Brussels, I suspect that there is going to be one almighty clusterfuck.

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