This legal question becomes especially serious because companies like Shell and Exxon-Mobil can bring cases to a jurisdiction that they contributed to creating in the first place â a forum specially fit for their purposes.
In the late 1950s, Shell and other oil firms were concerned about maintaining control of the global southâs natural resources. Decolonization was a risk to their business model. They were also worried that governments in both south and north were taking a more active role in the economy. The lawyers of oil firms and international bankers joined forces to imagine a legal regime that would protect their oil and mineral businesses from state intervention. This regime would consist of a structure of international treaties and international arbitration known as investor-state dispute settlement, or ISDS. Although the wording of these treaties remained vague, their expectation was that international arbitration would serve to develop the proper legal rules to