With a series of murky international trade agreements like the TPP being negotiated, will a secret court give corporations the power to erode the rights of nation states? The TPP includes an Investor State Dispute Settlement clause that allows a secret court (ICSID; International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes) with global reach to arbitrate disputes between multinationals and the countries they operate in, potentially forcing governments to change sovereign laws or pay compensation to companies if they lose a case.