ALLIANCE FOR DEMOCRACY / AECD   

D R A F T 6.1  April 2000

A Common Agreement on Investment and Society

Preamble

_WE, AS REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLES OF THE WORLD, in order to ensure the integrity of the earth and all its inhabitants, to foster the creative and cooperative capabilities of all people, to protect and encourage local economies, to sharpen the productive and adaptive functions and accountability of business organizations as well as public and civic organizations in democratic society, to balance local and international development and trade, to promote fair trade and investment practices, and to ensure that all people share fairly in the fruits of human labor and natural bounty as well as in necessary economic and political effort, do establish this common agreement on investment for all countries.

Table of Articles

1. Authority
2. Institutions
3. Right to technology
4. Right to land and water use
5. Environment and Full-cost accounting
6. Social priorities:
Indigenous peoples, debtor nations, all countries, gender
7. Corporate responsibility
8. Corporate accountability
9. Corporate size and mobility
10. Labor and transnational corporate employees
11. Corporate and Labor benefits
12. Citizen involvement and local development
13. International monetary standards and financial transactions
14. Intellectual property
15. Privacy, access, and competition
16. Public information, advertising, lobbying
17. Corporate risk
18. Investment and speculation
19. Regulatory fairness and corruption
20. Enforcement
21. Decision-making models
22. Incorporating UN and other agreements, supersession
23. Arms industry control and NATO
24. Ratification, accession, amendment, withdrawal

Principles and Provisions

Article 1. Authority

1.00. THE CURRENT WORLD ECONOMIC SYSTEM IS NEITHER FAIR NOR SUSTAINABLE, AND NEEDS TO BECOME HUMANE AND ECOLOGICALLY SOUND. THIS NECESSITY PROVIDES BROAD AUTHORITY BY WHICH ALL COUNTIES AND COMMUNITIES WISHING TO SHARE RESOURCES, DEVELOPMENTS AND EXCHANGE OPPORTUNITIES BEYOND THEIR BORDERS JOIN TOGETHER AS SIGNATORIES OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, OTHER UNITED NATIONS COVENANTS, AND THIS COMMON AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT AND SOCIETY (CAIS). PARLIAMENTARY RATIFICATION IS REQUIRED.

 

1.01. The authority of CAIS derives initially from members' required endorsement of the Univer sal Declaration of Human Rights; the core conventions of the International Labor Organization; the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Charter of the Rights and Duties of States; and the Multilateral Environmental Agreements; with parliamentary ratification of the first and at least two of the latter four.

1.02. The Agreement's authority rests in an ethical acknowledgment that equitable sharing yields the greatest opportunity for thriving and happiness for all, and that secrecy and deception, exclu sivity, concentration of property, inequitable deprivation of resources, and mass manipulation result in social dysfunction and unnecessary loss of personal well-being, life, and resources.

1.03. CAIS acknowledges that its validity, or the validity of any public agreement in democratic society, depends on its being openly arrived at and openly debated by all sectors of society. It is not an instrument for private gain of those individuals or organizations best equipped to profit quickly or inordinately from its provisions, but recognizes the priority of community and democracy.

1.04. CAIS's promise rests in recognition of the right of each nation, people and community to create and maintain prosperous and self-reliant domestic economies, and the provision of support and assistance in realizing the means and ends to cooperation specified in this pact.

1.05. Failing cooperation, CAIS's authority is exercised through suspension of access to the pact's beneficial institutions and provisions, with probationary expectation toward renewal of cooperation.

1.06. Absence of reference in this Agreement to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS), Agreement on Trade- Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), and other existing bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements or drafts, with regard to common terms such as capital or regulatory expropriation, national treatment, most favored nation, performance requirements, temporary entry (immigration), and investor-to-state dispute resolution, is not an oversight. CAIS subordinates or replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Chapter 11, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the global agreements it administers.

1.07. This Agreement assumes the sovereignty of all nations and constituent localities to enforce their own laws regarding these matters, including the sustaining or withdrawal from treaty rules elsewhere agreed. CAIS denies any presumption of unconditional foreign access to the resources or markets of sovereign nations or localities, and does not assume that a high volume of international trade and foreign ownership of resources compared with domestic is necessarily beneficial.

1.08. This Agreement affirms and supports all international agreements concerning environmental protection, human rights, and labor rights, and supports agreements affirmed elsewhere in this document.

1.09. The provisions of the present Agreement supercede provisions of extant trade or investment agreements, in cases of contradiction.

Article 2. Institutions

2.000. The CAIS establishes six international institutions, constrains the Inter national Monetary Fund and the World Bank to their original missions and establishes their accountability, and evaluates and possibly dissolves the World Trade Organization. Principally as elected bodies, the CAIS institutions consult and cooperate with the United Nations. These institutions are:

• a large number of Local System Organizations which function autonomously,
• a Development Assistance Institute which among other things assists Local System Organizations and provides evaluative research. The Institute is overseen by
• an elected World Economic Parliament which among other things sets some para meters for
• a World Economic and Environmental Court, which employs a legal expense pool for affordability and quality of representation for all. In addition
• a Center on Transnational Corporations sets operational standards and monitors international capital transactions, and
• a University of Enterprise which fosters area-wide knowledge, imagination and interchange useful for economic and social development.

LOCAL SYSTEM ORGANIZATION (LSO)

2.001. Communities and larger localities shall establish Local System Organizations to engage their natural and human assets to enhance and empower the local economy. LSOs involve public, private, non-profit and co-operative (community) sectors and related constituencies.

2.002. Each signatory country shall be eligible for funds from the Development Assistance Institute to establish LSOs. Self-established LSOs shall also be eligible for Institute funds in early stages of development.

2.003. The principal purposes of the Local System Organizations shall be to foster distinctive ness, connectivity, cooperation, complementarity, self-reliance, and adaptability in and among local economies, rather than uniformity, subordination, or dependency.

2.004. The LSOs shall provide scientific and technical assistance to constituent organizations in the study, planning, and adaptation of community economic and social development and support systems. In so doing LSOs shall be able to request assistance from the Development Assistance Institute.

2.005. Human rights--including democracy, culture, and human biological necessities--and environmental sustainability, shall maintain priority over commercial values in the purposes of any LSO. LSOs shall foster equitable distribution of resources among people within their jurisdiction.

2.006. LSOs may promote their local economies and serve the people of regional and international constituencies by collaborating with one another and with United Nations and other international agencies. LSOs are encouraged to pair with one another across geographic and cultural boundaries in the fashion of Sister Cities and other non-governmental organization linkages, to provide public grounding for such agencies as well as exchanging perspectives, information, expertise, and resources. At the request of any LSO, the Development Assistance Institute shall rate the competency or competencies of that LSO and any LSO offering or seeking collaboration.

2.007. LSOs may serve as monitors of agencies within their areas of interest and competence, including financial operations within local legal limits.

2.008. Persons operating or directing an LSO in any community or region shall represent the full range of citizens within the jurisdiction. They shall be nominated by municipalities or local communities in the jurisdiction, and elected by the local citizenry following conveniently scheduled and well publicized local forums. Institutional connections of all candidates shall be publicized.

2.009. Each LSO shall confer in an open, democratic process with the community or communities it represents as to the goals for the future of the community or communities.

2.010. Biennially on a non-working day or days or a series of evenings each LSO shall sponsor a forum to report on its activities to all citizens in the jurisdiction, and to confer with citizens about improvements in its functioning and effects. Reports from the previous biennial forum after the first, and any interim reports, shall be widely distributed at least two months in advance of the current forum.

2.011. After establishment, any LSO's revenues shall normally be generated by fees and other local arrangements. However, any LSO may request technical or financial assistance from the Institute, which shall establish criteria for distributing such funds including remoteness, environmental assaults, destroyed or fragile infrastructure, and special opportunity for development.

2.012. LSOs shall be subject to local laws, including law relating to corruption. At its discretion, DAI may provide legal assistance to litigant operating representatives.

DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE INSTITUTE (Institute, DAI)

2.101. A Development Assistance Institute shall be established to serve all countries and regions of the world regarding challenges of regional and international development, including planning and evaluation of conservation, restoration, development, and coordination of systems, and access to and distribution of investment resources.

2.102. The Institute shall study existing and alternative systems of international capital flow and control, and their effects, and of democratic ways of ameliorating adverse effects.

2.103. The Institute shall build and maintain data bases on local community expertise, assets, resources, process and outcomes of endeavors, and social organization which can be searched for matches by other communities and LSOs seeking models or collaboration. DAI shall provide assistance in conducting searches and establishing collaboration, and with the University of Enterprise provide archives, development theory, and general support.

2.104. The Institute shall assist LSOs to develop and use local data banks for matching local production or production potential with local markets or market possibilities. Such information shall be available to other LSOs through appropriate networks.

2.105. The Institute shall fund or provide technical assistance to governments, civil organizations, Local System Organizations, and international agencies for constructive activities described elsewhere in this agreement including setting sustainable standards, planning, and evaluation, with special help for people and organizations lacking resources, and for correcting the operations of military and other institutional violators of human and environmental rights.

2.106. To qualify for support from the Institute, international and other bodies evaluating economic development systems and plans shall evaluate results not only with respect to corporate and state-industry production and change, but also with respect to principal costs and benefits to people affected directly and indirectly, and to the biosphere. Such evaluation bodies shall include a wide range of philosophical approaches and not be limited to neoliberal and/or socialistic composition.

2.107. The Institute shall be directed by an elected board of governors. The initial board of governors shall be nominated by the parliaments or national assemblies of member countries. Each parliament shall nominate several candidates, with more nominations from more populous countries, geometrically weighted as follows:

Countries with populations under 1 million (1M) inhabitants shall nominate 2 candidates.
Countries with more than 1M but less than 2M shall nominate 3 candidates.
Countries with more than 2M but less than 4M shall nominate 4 candidates.
Countries with more than 4M but less than 8M shall nominate 5 candidates.
Countries with more than 8M but less than 16M shall nominate 6 candidates.
Countries with more than 16M but less than 32M shall nominate 7 candidates.
Countries with more than 32M but less than 64M shall nominate 8 candidates.
Countries with more than 64M but less than 128M shall nominate 9 candidates.
Countries with more than 128M but less than 256M shall nominate 10 candidates.
Countries with more than 256M but less than 512M shall nominate 11 candidates.
Countries with more than 512M but less than 1.024 billion shall nominate 12 candidates.
Countries with more than 1.024 billion inhabitants shall nominate 13 candidates.

2.108. All population counts shall include all residents including refugees, non-citizens, and transients. Disputed counts shall be submitted for arbitration to the Population Commission of the United Nations, which shall permit reasonable estimates of sub-populations.

2.109. All candidates shall be listed in a pool. A board of 25 governors shall be selected by stratified random sampling of candidates. At least one candidate shall be drawn from each of eleven or twelve large regions (strata) with cultural affinities such as the Russian Federation; Japan, Taiwan and Pacific Islands; China; Southeast Asia; India; Middle East from Pakistan and Central Asia to Morocco; Africa south of the Sahara; Europe; North America, Australia and New Zealand; Mexico, Central America and Caribbean Basin; and South America excluding Caribbean rim nations. The composition of these regions shall be determined and reviewed from time to time by the World Economic Parliament in consultation with appropriate branches of the United Nations. The largest such region shall contain no more than twice as many residents as the smallest. In the event that the random draw selects more than one-third of the candidates of a given country, the draw shall be considered invalid, and the procedure repeated. Not every member country need be represented on the board, but at least 15 countries must be represented or the draw shall be considered invalid, and the procedure repeated.

2.110. Except for the initial board of governors, all candidates for governor of the Institute shall be nominated by municipal governments in all member countries, and shall be subject to periodic re-election. The first such election shall be held within five years of constituting DAI's initial board. Each municipality shall elect one candidate, and all candidates shall be listed in a pool. For purposes of this election, a municipality shall contain between 5,000 and 25,000 inhabitants including refugees, non-citizens, and transients not counted in another municipality. Places smaller than 5,000 may combine with an adjacent municipality. Places larger than 25,000 may subdivide into natural districts, quarters, barrios, neighborhoods, and the like. A board of 25 governors shall be selected at random from the pool, using blind statistical methods. The term of office shall be 5 years. Resignations shall be replaced by annual random selections from the original pool. New candidate elections shall be held world-wide every 5 years, creating a fresh pool of candidates. Election procedures shall be supervised by an Electoral Commission established (Article 2.202, 203) by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

2.111. The board of governors shall appoint staff and have continuous oversight. It shall perform periodic reviews of DAI operations, making complete reports available to all constituent municipalities. The board shall organize itself in such manner as to ensure accountability of all functional areas of the Institute.

2.112. All operations and documents of Institute shall be open to public scrutiny..

2.113. Initial funding of the Development Assistance Institute shall be one billion dollars from the reserves of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) or their successors. Subsequent budgets of DAI shall be authorized by the World Economic Parliament and shall draw on IMF or WB as a supplementary funding basis after receipt of member quotas, fees and other revenues.

2.114. Starting in DAI's 13th month of operation each country signing this Agreement shall annually contribute to the Institute liquid assets equivalent to 1/20th of one percent of its Gross National Product (GNP) or of any successor index of production or wealth recommended by the Institute under this Agreement and approved by the World Economic Parliament.

2.115. A tax on short term international speculation in money or financial instruments, reported by the Center on Transnational Corporations, may be substituted in whole or in part for country assessments as revenue for the Institute.

2.116. Country assessments shall be discounted according to savings in human and natural resources realized during the preceding year according to measures specified elsewhere in this Agreement.

2.117. Current income of the Institute shall include fees for technical assistance negotiated and contracted with Local System Organizations. Such services shall be provided without charge for poor LSOs, with poverty criteria established in consultation with appropriate agencies of the United Nations.

2.118. The Institute may make grants to LSOs, but not loans except for short-term extension of contract payments.

WORLD ECONOMIC PARLIAMENT (Parliament, WEP)

2.201. Through revision of the Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations (this Article, below) and other means, a World Economic Parliament shall determine fair and equitable rules for international trade and investment which recognize the roles of institutions described in this Article. The Parliament shall oversee the Center on Transnational Corporations (this Article, below), and shall require new elections of governors of the Development Assistance Institute if the DAI fails in its mandate or exceeds the bounds of its mandate. It may provide supervision of the DAI if so ordered by the World Economic and Environmental Court (this Article, below). It shall certify corporate charters for international trade and investment. It shall promote public debate on international capital flows, and set policy pending reconstitution of the International Monetary Fund or establishment of its successor (this Article, below). It shall recommend to CAIS members amendments to this Agreement for incorporation of UN covenants and for closer association of any CAIS institution with the United Nations. It shall consult with the UN Security Council to control weaponry, promote security, and foster constructive use of military personnel. Other Parliament functions are specified elsewhere in this Agreement.

2.202. The Parliament shall be elected by the people of each signatory country, and by the people of non-signatory countries as participants without vote. An Electoral Commission of first-, second-, and third-world commissioners shall set rules ensuring that countries with larger popu lations elect more representatives, but on a sliding scale such that smaller countries maintain adequate voice and larger constituencies are not redundantly represented. The Commission may use rules of pooling, regional stratification and random selection of district nominees as specified for DAI (Article 2.107 ff).

2.203. The Electoral Commission shall be appointed by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), and shall supervise elections of the World Economic Parliament, the governors of the Development Assistance Institute, the governors of the University of Enterprise, and also other CAIS elections as requested by any CAIS body. Should ECOSOC fail to constitute a commission, the countries and localities concerned shall form a representative and impartial ad hoc commission.

2.204. The Parliament shall determine its own structure. The Parliament as a world body shall remain in continuous session. The operations of the Parliament shall not be limited by geography, but shall make extensive use of electronic communication networking and local and regional offices and gatherings.

2.205. The Parliament shall appropriate funds for its own functioning from the Development Assistance Institute, which shall prepare general budgets for CAIS institutions at their request, and for other revenue and expenditures, for consideration by the Parliament. Parliament shall have the authority to appropriate funds for other CAIS institutions, but LSOs shall have the right to challenge their appropriations in the World Economic and Environmental Court, and may receive legal assistance from DAI.

 

WORLD ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL COURT (Court, WEEC)

2.301. The World Economic Parliament shall form a World Economic and Environmental Court competent to adjudicate disputes under this Agreement which cannot be resolved in domestic courts. The WEEC shall observe the legal considerations of the domestic courts of the disputing parties. Selection, payment, and protection of judges shall assure their cultural and class diversity and their independence of governments, other international bodies, and pressure groups.

2.302. The Court decides cases of alleged violation of CAIS provisions, usually on appeal from national courts requiring damages, and on petition from LSOs. These include unfair competitive practices, corruption, decertifying of transnational-corporate persistent violators, and restoration of assets to former colonies and indigenous peoples . The Court may seek evaluation of intellectual property claims from the Development Assistance Institute.

2.303. Judges of the Court, one from each signatory country, shall be nominated by the chief judges of signatory countries and confirmed by the legislatures of those countries. Rules of the Court shall be determined by the World Economic Parliament in consultation with the judges and with ECOSOC. These consultations shall take into account the rules of the International Court of Justice (World Court, UN) and the need to comply with the requirements of international law. In any particular case the Court shall respect the juristic traditions of the countries of the parties involved and the Rules of the Court shall determine which judges hear the case. Corrective measures available to the Court are specified by the World Economic Parliament in consultation with the Institute and the judges of the Court.

2.304. The Court shall receive funding from the Development Assistance Institute upon recommendation of the World Economic Parliament. Judges shall be paid a standard fee on a monthly basis plus expenses including staff, communications, and appropriate residence during their months of service including case preparation and CAIS-related writing.

2.305. Signatory countries shall have standing to sue in the World Economic and Environmental Court for alleged violations of CAIS provisions. Civil organizations previously formed, or organizations constituted of individuals in class action, may have standing to sue international bodies and corporations certified for international trade or investment. Corporations may have standing to sue other corporations in the Court only when no remedy is available in domestic courts, and shall not have standing to sue countries or civil organizations.

2.306. In investment disputes involving corporations and governments, other businesses, civil organizations or international bodies, legal expenses shall be drawn from a Legal Expense Pool. At the outset of litigation, and periodically thereafter, each party shall make deposits to the pool in direct proportion to its total assets, including the assets of associated companies and of guaranty funds. The World Economic and Environmental Court shall determine each party's assets, taking into account the availability of assets from associated companies and funds. The Court shall determine the size of initial deposits and of later installments. Parties which consider unfair the determination of deposits by any party in their case may request of the Court adjustments based on a more thorough assessment conducted by DAI. The results of such assessment, like any DAI document or those of the Court, are open to public scrutiny.

2.307. Legal counsel and investigative agents for each party shall be of equal quality and shall receive from the Pool and from no other source fair compensation for their services. Mediators shall be similarly compensated.

CENTER ON TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS  (CTC)

2.401. The Center on Transnational Corporations or an equivalent body shall be reestablished as an autonomous institution outside the framework of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Its 1989 draft Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations (TNCs) shall serve as a basis for evaluating corporate conduct in the adjudication of any dispute under this Agreement. The Code may be amended from time to time by the World Economic Parliament. Recomposition of the Center shall be required when one-third of Local System Organizations petition the Parliament for such action.

2.402. The CTC shall monitor international transactions, individual and corporate, in money and financial instruments, relative to the Code. CTC shall have standing with WEEC to sue any transnational corporation or individual trader which hampers CTC access to relevant information, and to seek injunctions against their relevant operations. CTC may levy uniform small taxes (Tobin tax) on their short-term international investment transactions. The amount of such taxes shall be set by WEP and collected by DAI and shall be distributed equitably among LSOs. CTC shall cooperate with all parties in disputes involving violation of the Code of Conduct, including providing evidence in WEEC and domestic courts.

2.403. The CTC shall be funded initially and periodically by the Parliament, but subsequently may offset such funding by awards of the World Economic and Environmental Court upon petition of any group of three or more LSOs.

UNIVERSITY OF ENTERPRISE (University, UE)

2.501. A University of Enterprise shall be created under the general supervision and initial funding of DAI, and local supervision of LSOs. The purpose of the University shall be to promote the broadest possible understanding and practice of economic enterprise including public, private, nonprofit and other forms. The University shall be widely dispersed among member countries, and at secondary as well as tertiary schooling levels, making use of telecommunications and special technology for distance learning and experience-sharing. 2.502. UE shall foster research and dissemination of knowledge based on the widest range of methods, including conventional scientific as well as community-based and action research. It shall provide forums for scholars and practitioners of diverse persuasions, relating to economics, development, environment, society, governance, and ethics. It shall provide opportunities for instruction, direct learning, and experimentation of, by, and for persons and groups of all backgrounds, through secondary schools and community colleges as well as research universities and independent and government institutes. 2.503. UE shall maintain scholarly and cooperative relations with all relevant institutions of learning and with LSOs, community groups such as labor unions, trade associations, cooperative associations, community development organizations, professional associations including police and military, consumer and citizen action organizations, benevolent societies, and municipal governments.

2.504. UE shall ensure that communities with little access to computers rapidly improve such access and skill, using and contributing to their local LSO and its data banks and other facilities.

2.505. UE local units shall provide access for all regardless of ability to pay. They may in part be subsidized by LSOs, and may derive revenue from participant and alumni contributions, and as compensation for contracted services, and other means authorized by LSOs. They shall not incur debt, financial or social, to private corporations, nor shall they be used as promotional platforms for such organizations.

2.506. UE local leadership and instruction shall not require professional degrees, but for qualification shall emphasize enterprise success, community response, ingenuity, system- mindedness, energy and dedication. Compensation, as required beyond pro bono service, shall follow local community standards as fostered by the local LSO.

2.507. UE and its local units shall be reviewed at reasonable intervals by LSOs and by local participants, with their reports made public before and in connection with public evaluative forums. Participants may have direct influence in UE revision through LSO elections.

REFORM OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETRY FUND AND THE WORLD BANK

2.601. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) shall be reformed in a series of steps within three years after adoption of this Agreement.

2.602. IMF and WB shall immediately institute all measures at their disposal to cancel the indebtedness to them of poor countries, even if this reduces reserves intended for other purposes. Such cancellation shall not carry any requirement of structural adjustment of national or local priorities, laws, institutions, or procedures. They shall report to DAI the nature of their success in this endeavor, together with amounts and changes in indebtedness by national and institutional borrowers to other lenders. Countries disputing their definition as "poor" or otherwise may sue IMF or WB or their successors in WEEC.

2.603. DAI shall review the official purposes of IMF and WB and initiate a high priority evaluation project to study those institutions and their impacts, and within 18 months report and make recommendations to them, to the General Assembly of the United Nations and ECOSOC, and to the World Economic Parliament. DAI shall be concerned with purposive effects, but all aspects of IMF and WB effects— economic, social, environmental, technical, and organizational— direct and indirect— and shall take account of the experience of all classes of stakeholders in IMF and WB operations. To illustrate its findings and recommendations it shall construct a causal diagram showing key function and structure effects as well as key elements of IMF, WB, and other international institutions and of impacted social and environmental bodies involved, with strength and conditionality of causation.

2.604. For each of their loans negotiated in the past five years, IMF and WB shall publish the conditions impelling the loan and the structural and other adjustments required for making the loan, and shall make them and all other details of the loan and loan monitoring and performance available to DAI. These shall include the banks, government enterprises, corporations, and other direct and indirect recipients of significant sums of money loaned, thereby accounting for at least 95 per cent of sums loaned by IMF and WB.

2.605. For each country to which loans were made in the past five years, IMF and WB shall report their analysis of the economic system and the general economic conditions, and the effects of significant (large, or cumulative small) short- and long-term foreign investments and withdrawal of assets on economic conditions and the economic system including incomes, debt, net worth and government services received, of ordinary as well as wealthier classes of people in the country. An overview shall characterize differences as well as similarities among countries.

2.606. Based on the country analyses above, and upon the formal purposes of their institutions, IMF and WB shall recommend structural changes for themselves which enable them to assign loans and conditions for loans which are flexible and expedient rather than orthodox and uniform, and above all which may support the macroeconomic purposes inherent in the purposes of their institutions. These recommendations, therefore, must go beyond the modifications suggested by the international financial architecture working groups of WB convened in Washington in April 1998. In the process, IMF and WB shall work in partnership with scholars and practitioners of different theoretical persuasions, especially those in debtor countries and those who are critical of IMF and WB policies and their guiding theories.

2.607. After submission of the above reports and within two years of adoption of this Agreement, IMF and WB together with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and the World Economic Parliament shall jointly sponsor a world conference of their stakeholders, including former communist and former colonial area labor leaders, environmentalists, local officials, and political opposition leaders as well as business persons, bankers and national officials concerned with IMF and WB policies. Through its ensuing working groups and subsequent reconvention, this conference shall recommend New Articles of Agreement for WB and IMF, for consideration and ratification by national parliaments.

SHORT TERM REFORMS OF IMF AND WORLD BANK

2.608 With recommendation from DAI, the World Economic Parliament shall appoint a receiver for the IMF and its current board. WEP shall request the resignation of all current governors. The receiver shall recommend a board of overseers of the highest quality representing a wide range of economic and social views from industrialized and less industrialized nations, including the least developed. WEP shall select a board of overseers from these nominees, and convene them so that they may discuss IMF mission and reorganization. Upon resignation of the present board, the new board shall be installed as temporary overseers. They shall bring the matter to the parliaments of all IMF member nations for development of a new charter and its eventual adoption, including new more democratic methods of selecting directors.

2.609. During reorganization, IMF shall proceed with its current president and chief economist and any aides from IMF they wish to retain. IMF shall reconsider current remedies which it applies more or less universally for bailouts: currency devaluation, fiscal austerity, and monetary contraction. They shall assess the special conditions of each applicant, and consider remedies which not only would stabilize the country's balance of payments, but maintain standards of living and justice for the whole population. In particular, they shall (i) require that the country adopt formal bankruptcy codes which require creditors to accept a substantial share of losses, (ii) encourage as a condition for IMF loan debt-for-equity swaps with the effect of reducing the value of foreign-owned assets as well as giving creditors a stake in the success of domestic enterprises, and (iii) require banks to take losses for unpayable international loans rather than rolling them over indefinitely.

EVALUATION AND POSSIBLE DISSOULUTION OF THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

2.701. Mindful of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the World Trade Organization (WTO) shall have no jurisdiction concerning ownership or access to food, water, energy, safety measures, basic social services including health and education, life forms, traditional knowledge, and other matters critical to human or planetary welfare. Matters referred to as Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights and as Trade-Related Investment Measures shall also be excluded from WTO jurisdiction.

2.702. The dispute settlement procedures of WTO are inconsistent with democratic rights and are redundant with powers of the World Economic and Environmental Court. Disputes currently under WTO consideration shall be transferred to domestic courts where possible, or may be brought to WEEC, which shall decide jurisdiction and may hear cases allowable under CAIS.

2.703. Over two years the benefits, costs, and less tangible effects of the WTO shall be assessed under the supervision of the WEP with technical assistance from DAI and consultation with ECOSOC of the UN. All relevant sources of information from all countries involved in WTO operations shall be considered so that indirect and "external" effects are factored into a general macroeconomic understanding of WTO impacts.

2.704. Results of the assessment shall be submitted to the General Assembly of the United Nations, with recommendations for improvement or dissolution of the WTO. In the latter case, the WEP shall suggest institutions and other means for addressing challenges of world trade and investment including how to coordinate international economic relations while maintaining or enhancing all human rights as required by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and by conventions of the International Labor Organization, and natural rights as required by multilateral environmental agreements, to the parliaments of the world.

Article 3. Right to technology

3.00. All people have a right of access to old and new technologies which sustain and improve human and ecological conditions. At the same time, governments have the duty to limit harmful technologies for the benefit of their citizens.

3.01. The DAI shall establish a library within UE to collect, analyze and disseminate information on the history and status of product and process development and patents, and on utilization of science and technology, social and informational as well as physical.

3.02. Corporations developing technology shall make available to the University of Enterprise at cost the theoretical and operational understanding necessary for people to select and apply such technology, including training methods, to new enterprises. Patent rights as herein defined continue to apply with respect to compensation for such transfers of knowledge. On behalf of their state or private schools or enterprises, states may apply to DAI for funds for expenses in creating new applications of such technology or for education and training relevant to new applications.

3.03. To the degree that publicly supported science and technology of the previous generation has provided a basis for the current production equipment and programming of certain TNCs, those corporations shall transfer through DAI a commensurate quantity of those items to the public for productive use, proportional to the assets of the corporation above a reasonable threshold. Priority shall be given to public institutions and agencies, and individuals and organizations working through them, which seek such products to improve the condition of or to empower people who would not otherwise have access to such equipment through ownership or rental.

3.04. Signatory nations and other participating parties shall exercise the precautionary principle. Applications of new technology and products, and expanded or novel uses of existing ones, shall be held in abeyance if there exists reasonable concern that harm may result, pending well-founded, scientific evidence to the contrary. Long-term effects of new products and technologies shall be calculated, fully investigated and published prior to their general use.

3.05. DAI shall consider applications from LSOs and other bodies to study and monitor productive overcapacity and maldistribution of goods and services.

Article 4. Right to land and water use

4.00. People whose livelihoods or cultural necessities have been harmed by forced purchase or conquest and abuse of ancestral lands or bodies of water have the right to reclaim their use and enjoyment.

4.01. In conformance with the Universal Declaration of Human rights, all people have the right to food, water, and livelihood. Accordingly, the DAI in consultation with LSOs shall establish a Land Use Survey which shall report annually to the Parliament. The Survey shall establish quality standards for its survey work, and shall make use of existing government survey resources in all member countries and within UN agencies. In all cases the Survey shall work in collaboration with LSOs, providing those services through LSOs in the absence of existing government or UN survey services of standard quality. Where there is no LSO in the area, LSOs in ecologically similar areas shall be consulted and if possible employed.

4.02. The Survey shall determine areas where the use of water or land is limited by owners such that more than five per cent of agricultural and indigenous people of the area are deprived of livelihood, adequate income, income security, or cultural access. The Survey further shall assess the current use of such land and water supplies in terms of local and regional economic integration relative to export enterprise. The value of fallow land, preserved forest, marshes, rivers, lakes, shorelines, mountain vistas and other ecological features shall be taken into account.

4.03. The Survey shall assess purity of and damage to water and land as part of quasi-stable ecological systems, accounting losses due to underground and other toxic leakages, salinization, and other signs of abuse.

4.04. The Parliament shall take steps to assure the return to agricultural people the use of ancestral lands or lands not currently contributing to sustainable food or fiber production for local or regional consumption, and of ancestral bodies of water. LSOs may seek funds and technical assistance from DAI to mediate between stakeholders and governments responsible for enforcing ownership and use laws, and with UE for educating law-makers and the public about appropriate changes in national or local law.

4.05. Extraction of minerals, oil, gas, old growth forest or other non-renewable resources shall commence or continue only with the consent of LSOs in affected areas. National and local governments in affected areas shall consider taking land by eminent domain or similar processes, or by extending public park systems to include disputed land.

4.06. LSOs may apply to DAI for funds to initiate suits in domestic courts, appealable to the WEEC, to further the purposes of this Article. WEEC shall have the authority to require of owners the restoration or restitution of lands and bodies of water, and compensation for losses, in cases where local people have been deprived of land or water rights.

Article 5. Environment and Full-Cost Accounting

5.00. For the benefit of all people, signatory governments and civil organizations, corporations, and international institutions chartered or operating within their jurisdiction shall cooperate to sustain the earth and its biological systems. Governments must monitor economic results of industry and commerce using indices which take full account of environmental and social costs and benefits and other effects external to profit-oriented models.

5.01. All international corporations of at least ten million dollars' capitalization shall publish annually an Environmental and Social Interaction (ESI) statement, detailing the extent to which their business operations and anticipated investments preserve or disturb, enhance or degrade, expand or deplete natural resources and the natural order of the biosphere including its human members.

5.02. Common classes of environmental disturbance-degradation-depletion such as chemical or radioactive pollution, noise pollution, overfishing, and unwarranted cross-pollenation, and preservation-enhancement-expansion such as replanting forests and plains or restocking waters, scrubbing chemicals from air, and providing enhanced habitation for workers, shall be defined by DAI without prejudice to other classes which may arise.

5.03. Mindful of existing multilateral environmental agreements, DAI shall publish standards regarding common classes of cross-border environmental disturbance-degradation-depletion. Where standards are lacking DAI shall set standards agreeable to Parliament. DAI shall refer cases of persistent violation to appropriate LSOs for remedial and domestic court action, or to the WEEC directly.

5.04. Employees, agents, suppliers, customers, and competitors shall be availed of ESI statements and shall be encouraged to publicly correct such statements and fill in omissions.

5.05. Offending companies shall be required to improve their performance with respect to environmental and social impacts by consultation with LSOs in their areas of operation. The LSO shall consider how the company's operations impede local economic systems in fostering environmental and social well-being, and with the help of exemplary companies as well as organs of civil society in the same jurisdiction shall encourage the offending company to offer and implement constructive operational and/or systemic solutions. Failing improvement, the LSO may sue the offending company in WEEC.

5.06. LSOs shall bring persistently offending companies to WEC for fines, reorganization, or recommendation of charter revocation. In the latter case, the World Economic Parliament shall act on such recommendations.

5.07. The DAI shall monitor ESI statements due, and shall inquire and assist those in default. In cases of persistent default after efforts to assist, DAI shall give public notice so that aggrieved parties— governmental or civil— may sue in WEEC. [With assistance from LSO, offended companies may request governmental or civil organizations to bring suit on their behalf.]

5.08. Corporations and public enterprises are required to publish their plans for preserving and enhancing the natural order of the biosphere within their range of operations and investments, including alterations in the economic system upon which the business is founded. LSOs shall analyze such statements and offer warnings or encouragement where adverse or positive impacts are likely. Failure to comply with publication requirements is ground for suit by LSO in WEEC. Independent researchers are also encouraged to publish their analyses.

5.09. Discounts on their CAIS monetary quotas (see Article 2.114) shall be provided to countries which reduce environmental degradation and depletion, equal to the percentage of such reduction in the past year. Additional such discounts shall be provided according the percentage reduction of residents' income inequality, including services to residents provided gratis by state or community.

5.10. Governments and the United Nations as well as private agencies of civil society are encouraged periodically to assess these environmental and social interactions overall in light of CAIS principles, and from corporate and public enterprise plans and public suggestions to publish recommendations for improving corporate or public enterprise operations and investments, and for altering the underlying economic systems for the common good.

5.11. The "underlying economic system" and "the common good" shall be defined by comprehensive local indices established and periodically revised by LSOs.

5.12. Governments are encouraged to increase taxes and penalties for pollution and for resource waste, while reducing taxes on productive work and productive investment. DAI grants or contracts may be sought for studying and experimenting with such policy changes.

5.13. Nonprofit educational and research institutions as well as government and international agencies shall be eligible for DAI funding, including those compiling, analyzing and synthesizing findings and plans of corporations, government agencies, and the public.

5.14. The DAI shall reimburse contributing countries to the extent of human and biosphere savings realized by the country's application of recommended policies. These reimbursements shall be in addition to discounts realized by the past year's environmental degradation reduction, depletion reduction, and reduction of income inequality.

5.15. Human and biosphere savings shall be researched with DAI funding, aiming to establish and periodically revise methods of assessment. The WEP shall set a statute of limitations on seeking of adjustment of penalties on account of revised standards or methods of assessment, in cases before WEEC.

5.16. At its inception DAI shall convene a world conference on economic indexing, the purposes of which shall be to determine effective ways to internalize social and environmental costs in commercial pricing, and to establish standard comprehensive indices of economic production and welfare, including a successor to Gross Domestic Product, which will take full account of social and environmental costs. Ancillary purposes shall include the identification of mathematical models and the bases of their modification to accommodate such new indices and their utilization, and strategies for educating the publics of the world concerning these indices and related matters. The conference shall be broadly multidisciplinary and include qualified uninvited applicants. Funding for the conference, including minimal expenses of participants, shall be provided by DAI.

5.17. DAI shall encourage economists and other researchers, journalists, and writers to use the new indices in parallel with the old, and shall provide funds for publication of means to accomplish transition to the new in both technical and popular reports. DAI shall further advise tax agencies in all countries of the short- and long-term advantages of internalized-cost pricing and of full-cost accounting and preservation of assets within their jurisdictions.

 

Article 6. Social priorities

6.00. For people to thrive, economic systems should serve the needs of people primarily, and of profits secondarily. Where a system enriches a limited number of citizens at the expense of most, or tends to exhaust human or natural resources, it is the duty of all supporters of that system to alter it or withdraw support.

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

6.001. Governments shall ensure that indigenous peoples within their jurisdiction have natural and artifactual infrastructure necessary for thriving [equivalent functionally to that which best supported those peoples during the period 1950-75]. Such infrastructure includes fertile land, forests and bodies of water which are in the power of governments to preserve or restore. Governments may seek funds from DAI for evaluating and planning toward this end.

6.002. Failure of any government to succeed in this effort after a reasonable period may be cause for a suit in equity in the domestic court by representatives of the offended people, appealable to the World Economic and Environmental Court (WEEC). Payment of damages may be direct to the plaintiff, or by increase of quota to the DAI, or some combination.

6.003. TNCs which take common resources or genetic material from indigenous people or their territories are subject to punitive as well as compensatory damages in WEEC. LSOs have standing to bring such suits against responsible corporations or their successors, on behalf of offended peoples or communities.

DEBTOR NATIONS

6.101. For all extant loans from the IMF and similar multilateral or regional lending institutions, structural adjustment conditions (austerity, privatization, deregulation, export expansion, etc.) shall be null and void, and no such conditions shall be required for any further loans by such institutions.

6.102. Former colonies of major national powers of the past 200 years shall be entitled to handicap advantages as provided elsewhere in this Agreement, in proportion to the exploitation they suffered directly or as a consequence of colonial administrations. Debt administered by the IMF or other sources under structural adjustment or similar strictures shall be reduced or canceled after adjudication by the WEEC, which may also require the lending body or former colonizing country or its fiscal agent to compensate the people of the offended country.

6.103. Distribution of benefits from debt reduction or cancellation and compensation shall be determined, subject to popular review in open forum, by LSOs in affected areas, with no individual or family receiving more than twice the average annual value of work-income per adult, and one-third of that per child. Unpaid domestic work, civic work, or artistic work and other forms of unpaid work shall be valued according to local LSO standards, and for purposes of distribution treated as equivalent, e.g., three dollars per hour whether domestic, civic, artistic, or other.

ALL COUNTRIES

6.201. To receive development planning assistance from DAI, the LSOs of each country shall specify the basic necessities of life and society for all of its subgroups of inhabitants and outline, with empirical justification, how internal as well as external trade and investment may assist in their achievement. These necessities shall include material and cultural things which the people themselves identify, and the things necessary for interacting productively with others, especially as they relate to their special talents and cultural resources. DAI shall provide technical assistance in constructing plans and in achieving minimum standards.

6.202. Recognizing the limits of resources of Earth and the necessity to limit exploitation of non- renewable resources and the sources of pollution which inhibit the regeneration of resources, each country shall specify the gross and per capita limits of consumption of its people under technologies available domestically and externally, and revise these at least every five years.

6.203. DAI shall supervise the monitoring of progress in holding consumption within these limits and technically assist over-consuming countries to achieve sustainable standards. DAI further shall compile and disseminate comparative and systemic data.

GENDER

6.301. The DAI shall form a Task Force on the Economic Value and Rights of Women to assess the ways in which the formal and informal work of women may be undervalued in many regions and sectors of human economy, especially as this affects or is affected by investments. LSOs shall be funded to study these concerns locally and to develop means of fair recognition, fair employment, fair compensation, and retention of assets of women. Employment and compen sation shall be considered broadly, such that domestic, civic, and artistic opportunity and performance are justly compensated. The same shall apply to men engaging in similar work.

6.302. LSOs in collaboration with DAI shall develop and promote model legislation in their regions to internalize into wage scales, actuarially determined, the costs of unpaid pre- and post- natal care, child care, and children's education to women and men who must pay for such services from their wages, or divert community resources from remunerative work for such service, such that employing corporations bear such costs of their employees. 6.303. DAI and LSOs shall further work to apply insights and gains in these areas to all underemployed persons.

Article 7. Corporate responsibility

7.00. Any economic system must protect its farmers, workers, teachers, artists, writers, home-makers and other productive persons from displacement or impoverishment due to industrial or commercial decisions. Participating industries and governments share such responsibility, and must adapt institutions or develop new ones to assure appropriate results.

7.01. Component entities of transnational corporations (TNCs) are subject to the jurisdiction of the countries in which they operate. Disputes between a state and a component entity of a TNC, which are not amicably settled between the parties or resolved in accordance with previously agreed dispute settlement procedures, shall be submitted to competent courts or other authorities of that country, or to other agreed means of settlement such as arbitration, under the authority of the host country..

7.02. TNCs shall disclose to the public in the countries in which they operate all appropriate information on the contents and, to the extent known, on possible hazardous effects of the products they produce or market in the countries concerned by means of proper labeling, informative and accurate advertising, or other appropriate methods. Packaging of their products shall be safe and the contents of the product shall not be misrepresented.

7.03. TNCs whether publicly or privately held shall disclose to the public in the countries in which they operate, by appropriate means of communication, clear, full, and comprehensible information on the structure, policies, activities, and operations of the TNC as a whole. The information shall include financial as well as non-financial items and shall be made available on a regular annual basis, normally within six months and in any case not later than 12 months from the end of the financial year of the corporation. In addition, during the financial year, TNCs shall make available a semi-annual summary of financial information.

7.04. The financial information to be disclosed annually shall be provided on a consolidated basis together with suitable explanatory notes and shall include, among other things, the following: (1) a balance sheet; (2) an income statement including operating results and sales; (3) a statement of allocation of net profits or net income; (4) a statement of the sources and uses of funds; (5) significant new long-term capital investment; and (6) research and development expenditure, broken down by location. The non-financial information referred to in Article 6.3 above shall include, among other things: (1) the structure of the TNC showing the name and location of the parent company, its main component entities, its percentage ownership, direct and indirect, in these entities, including shareholdings between them; (2) the main activities of its entities; (3) employment information including average number of employees; (4) accounting policies used in compiling and consolidating the information published; and (5) policies and formulas applied in respect to transfer pricing.

7.05. The information provided for the TNC as a whole shall as far as practicable be broken down by geographical area or country, as appropriate, with regard to the activities of its main entities, sales, operating results, significant new investments, and number of employees; and by major line of business as regards sales and significant new investment. The method of breakdown as well as details of information provided shall be determined by the nature, scale, and interrelationships of the TNC's operations, with due regard for their significance for the areas or countries concerned.

7.06. The extent, detail, and frequency of the information provided shall take into account the nature and size of the TNC as a whole, the requirements of confidentiality of the host country, and effects on the TNC's competitive position. The information required shall be in addition to information required by national laws, regulations, and administrative practices of the countries in which the TNCs operate. TNCs shall supply to the competent authorities in each of the countries in which they operate, upon request or on a regular basis as specified by those authorities, and in accordance with national legislation, all information required for legislative and administrative purposes relevant to the activities and policies of their entities in the country concerned.

7.07. DAI shall study the requirements of confidentiality in among member countries and recommend to Center on Transnational Corporations if necessary the strengthening of the Code of Conduct of TNCs with respect to reporting, such that confidentiality cannot be used as a means to evade accountability.

Article 8. Corporate accountability

8.00. Transnational corporations and financial institutions must function in the public good as well as for the good of shareholders, and must be held to the terms of their charters and of licenses conditioning their operations in any particular foreign country.

8.01. Within five years of adoption of this Agreement, each member country shall review the charter of every independent corporation and financial institution operating within its jurisdiction whose assets at home and abroad total more than one billion dollars (base value at time of CAIS adoption). Foreign companies shall forward to the host country valid copies of such charters for this purpose together with valid copies of licenses for operating in the host country. The value of all component entities shall be included in the total. Assets shall include gross sales for the prior year, all tangible properties including rented properties it uses, and the value at market of all shares held by directors and managers.

8.02. Competent authorities in each country shall review the operations of all such corporations to ensure that they comply with the purposes of their charter and license. Whether explicit or not, it shall be assumed that all such charters and licenses require that all operations are consistent with the public good. The "public good" shall include, but not be limited to public health and safety, sound environment, fair and secure pay, financial and operational transparency, non-monopolistic operation, and substantial assurance of the continuation of these goods. Such assurance shall be based on the enforcement of contemporary high standards for the maintenance of each such good, and may be higher in the host country than in the home country and enforceable as such.

8.03. In all cases where such a corporation is not in compliance with its charter or license, the country shall notify the chartering country of this condition and shall suspend that corporation's licence to do business within its jurisdiction. In cases where the host country has reason to believe that the data given by the chartering country is inaccurate, it may request assistance from the DAI in obtaining accurate data. If putative inaccuracies persist, the host country may sue the chartering country in WEEC.

8.04. The corporation shall have the option of dividing into independent parts or reducing its overall size or the size of any component to less than the stipulated asset value for this review, but shall remain accountable for violations incurred before such division, and for the rights of all stakeholders specified in this Agreement. If continued collusion of parts can be proven in WEEC, the Court shall have the option of decertifying the corporation or its parts for international operations.

Article 9. Corporate size and mobility

9.00. Corporations are established for the public good as well as for private profit. It is the duty of governments to limit the size and mobility of corporations chartered or doing business within their jurisdiction so as to discourage monopoly and to be consistent with the welfare of workers, suppliers, customers, neighbors, and the environment both inside and outside their jurisdiction.

9.01. If a transnational corporation moves an operation outside reasonable commuting distance of its employees after less than two years of operation, or lays off workers after less than two years' employment, it shall continue to pay them for ____ months at the level of their last year's monthly average or until they are re-employed.

9.02. Unpaid employee or agent or member compensation within the limits of Article 10.4 shall be considered a primary claim on the assets of any transnational corporation or subsidiary in bankruptcy proceedings, before unpaid vendors, lenders, or shareholders.

9.03. If a transnational corporation moves an operation outside reasonable commuting distance of its employees after 12 but less than 24 months of operation, it shall continue for twice that many months more to pay taxes last assessed, or more if required by that locality's laws.

9.04. Each signatory country shall require that any investment, excepting individual small foreign exchange transactions of short-term visitors, shall remain in the country for a minimum of six months or a higher minimum to reduce the volume of destabilizing short-term cross-border financial flows and to restore national monetary autonomy over national currency. Where the country finds this requirement onerous or impractical, it shall work with DAI and LSOs within its territory to develop a practical alternative to achieve the same ends.

Article 10. Labor and transnational corporate employees

10.00. Productive work of all kinds including agricultural, extractive, industrial, commercial, cultural, and domestic must be recognized, justly compensated, and integrated into local and regional economic systems according to public and civic as well as private and monetary considerations. Employees must be able to share in business decisions affecting them through collective bargaining and worker influ ence in planning local economic systems. These principles shall be enforced as part of licensing agreements for companies investing or doing business internationally, their subsidiaries and subcontractors.

10.01. Governments shall include in their licensing agreements with transnational corporations the provisions of the conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) on the rights of working people to be assured safe and healthful work places, to associate and to organize, to have decent pay and other compensation, to have a voice in the organization of their work, to be treated equally regardless of immigrant, gender, or pregnancy status, and so on. The licensing agreements shall make the same applicable to subsidiaries and subcontractors.

10.02. For transnational corporations, their subsidiaries, and subcontractors, governments are required to enact measures for the elimination of child labor and sexual harassment, and discrimination on account of race, gender, national origin, ethnic identity, or sexual orientation.

10.03. Governments may levy special import tariffs on goods made or handled under conditions violating labor standards enumerated in Articles (10.01) and (10.02), sufficient to discourage continuing such violations.

10.04. Labor standards of any locality may be higher than those set by the national government or any international body, if mandated by popular vote of the citizens of that locality. Such standards shall be valid in any legal proceeding involving transnational corporations, their subsidiaries, and subcontractors.

10.05. No officer, employee, or agent of any transnational corporation, its subsidiaries, or subcontractors, may receive compensation in any form from that company totaling more than 20 times the compensation of the least-paid employee, agent, or member, full time or prorated part time, of that company, its subsidiaries or its subcontractors.

Article 11. Corporate and labor benefits

11.00. Regulatory benefits to corporations investing internationally are privileges, not rights. Such privileges are contingent upon performance consistent with the public good. Employees and labor unions may be partners with corporations in developing and sharing systems for their mutual benefit.

11.01. No company with more than ten employees, agents, managers, or members which has not been chartered by a country recognized by the World Economic Parliament may operate for profit in international trade or investment among signatory countries. Any qualifying corporation may operate in any country if licenced by that country, provided that it abides by the laws of that country and the provisions of this Agreement. Such corporations shall enjoy access to personnel, facilities, supplies, and markets consistent with the laws of that country, state, and municipality.

11.02. Fair Trade Zones shall be recognized where labor standards and/or corporate developmental standards are significantly higher than those of the immediate country or locality. Goods and services produced there shall enjoy relief from tariffs in all signatory countries commensurate with the additional level of labor and corporate standards attained.

11.03 Corporations which flagrantly or repeatedly violate either the laws of any country where it operates or of this Agreement shall be required to justify its continued existence in the World Economic and Environmental Court, or be dechartered and dissolved with its assets disposed of according to bankruptcy laws in the countries where it had been operating, or be sold to its employees and other stakeholders. Such property shall not be transferred to any competing corporation or organization without approval of the World Economic Parliament.

Article 12. Citizen involvement and local development

12.00. Citizens have a right to participate effectively in the establishment, monitor ing, and control of industry and commerce which affect their lives and livelihoods, as implied in the corporate chartering process. For accessibility, transparency and democratic control, local or regional facilities are preferred to distant facilities.

12.01. With LSO guidance, communities may apply for DAI funds to develop a community vision and commitment for environmentally sustainable industry, full employment, equitable distribution of resources, linkage with other sustainable communities, and so on. Such a vision may guide more specific community self-development projects.

12.02. Communities may apply to their LSO for funds to conduct local asset surveys as well as for planning and application of new social and production technologies. The LSO shall qualify applicants for independent projects according to their prior success, current or potential social support, and other reasonable criteria, and shall otherwise work closely with communities to foster reasonable levels of success. . 12.03. DAI shall provide priority funding for import replacement studies, planning, pilot projects, and project evaluation in the area covered by any LSO.

Article 13. International monetary standards and financial transactions

13.00. A universal standard of monetary exchange less dependent upon the value of a particular commodity such as gold or upon the value of a particular national currency such as the dollar, and more dependent upon the availability of human resources for basic services, should be established. Transnational corporations must not cheat countries of tariff or tax revenue by manipulating pricing between parts of the company.

13.01 The World Economic Parliament shall consider effective means of recovering capital sequestered abroad by elites of countries experiencing extreme devaluation or lowered prices in their countries.

13.02 Among other possibilities the Parliament shall consider the bonds of an international alliance of credit unions to guarantee national currencies, by offering the work of its members in providing basic necessities and infrastructure (for mass transportation, local and intra-regional transportation, communication, agriculture, housing, health care, education, basic industry, and for other amenities for the general population) of countries or currency-issuing regions adversely affected by monetary devaluation or price changes of basic goods and services.

13.03. With the consultation and recommendation of DAI, the Parliament shall develop means to assure convertibility of national currencies to the currency implied by the credit union bonds in Article 13.02.

13.04. DAI shall develop measures to encourage the use of local currencies by LSOs, which may of right circulate independently of credit union bonded currency described in Article (13.03), or any international standard, and which may aid local and regional development and integration.

13.05. With respect to their intracorporate transactions, transnational corporations shall not use pricing policies that are not based on relevant market prices, or, in the absence of such prices, the arm's length principle, which have the effect of modifying the tax base on which their component entities are assessed or of evading exchange control measures or customs valuation regulations or which, contrary to national laws and regulations, adversely affect economic and social conditions of the countries in which they operate.

 

Article 14. Intellectual property

14.00. Modern inventions and technical developments are products of cumulative work by generations of traditional occupations and researchers as well as the current inventor. Thus intellectual property is of right joint property, not to be bought, sequestered, or exploited as if exclusively owned.

14.01. DAI shall assist countries in evaluating the origins as well as the reach (see Article 14.03) of all inventions and technical developments referred by the WEEC. Until more precise determi nation of the level of contribution of origins, it will be assumed that half the value of the marginal utility (value added) of the invention or development inheres in the past. This determination will be a factor for extending more widely and at lower cost licensing of patented designs and manufacturing processes.

14.02. Within two years after its establishment, DAI shall convene a global conference on intel lectual property to implement provisions of this Article, among others, subsidizing the attendance of every interested sector of society. A major goal of the conference shall be to develop models and model legislation for widely distributing the fruits of invention rather than shielding and concentrating those potential benefits within single companies or individuals. Among fairness criteria considered shall be return of benefits to societies whose ancestors contributed to current inventions. The conference shall name committees which will form diversely constituted working groups from LSOs to work toward implementation. DAI shall fund continuing work of productive groups.

14.03. The reach of an invention or development shall be evaluated in part from sales and in part from non-sales applications for the common good. Taxation shall be abated according to the net constructive impact of the invention or development, taking into account negative impacts such as pollution, violence, and inhibition of resource regeneration.

14.04. Commercial profit from inventions and development beyond a reasonable threshold, even if realized in-house, shall be limited by progressive tax on sales, the revenues of which shall be applied to development research in the field of the invention or development, accessible to all commercial and non-commercial groups.

Article 15. privacy, access, and competition

15.00. Privacy is an individual, not a corporate right. As publicly chartered organizations with certain immunities and obligations, corporations must be accessible to public monitoring in all their essential functions consistent with the rules of competition.

15.01. Sole proprietorships, partnerships, and certain other non-incorporated forms of business organization are private enterprises wherein human participants have freedom from surveillance consistent with that of any citizen, as well as the criminal and civil liability of any citizen for misdeeds.

15.02. Chartered corporations, including public and nonprofit, are creatures of the state which, in democracies, is a creature of the citizens. As such, corporations are granted immunity from certain liabilities in exchange for acting for the public good and avoiding public harm, and for openness to public inspection for those purposes, on pain of charter revocation.

15.03. The facilities of all corporations which hire or contract with workers or agents shall be accessible to the public for adequate cause including civic, journalistic, or evidentiary observation.

15.04. Exceptions to accessibility requirements follow rules of competition. Under such rules any company, like any individual, shall enjoy confidentiality with respect to research and planning before the release of new products, methods, or initiation of campaigns, consistent with country or local laws and this Agreement.

Article 16. Public information, advertising, and lobbying

16.00. Unethical behavior and communication by corporations in pursuit of profit may lead to inequitable or disastrous outcomes for impacted peoples. All countries and international agencies should create conditions to preclude such unfair practices.

16.01. The most popular media in all localities shall carry civic information equivalent to five percent of its space or five percent of its high listenership or viewership time. Such spaces or periods shall carry, free of charge, informational material produced and/or edited by the local LSO. DAI shall develop methods for insuring this LSO against libel, slander, and similar legal exposure, and shall monitor compliance under contract to LSOs and other organizations. Media companies shall be held responsible for compliance, if necessary, by actions in WEEC.

16.02. Upon application approval, DAI shall provide technical assistance to countries whose citizens or officials are impacted by biased or overwhelming public information or misinformation,

misleading or false advertising, and disproportionate lobbying, including monitoring and evalua tion of effects which may be useful in seeking or creating remedies.

16.03. In addition to plaintiff civic and municipal organizations, corporations claiming unfair competitive practices involving public information, advertising, or lobbying may request of LSO a public hearing, at which all parties--including unions, whistle-blowers, and competing companies as well as the complainant--are invited to testify.

Article 17. Corporate risk

17.00. It is not the duty of governments or their international agents to rescue corporations from their adverse investment decisions, although such companies can be privately insured.

17.01 The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank or any related or successor international lending agencies shall, within one year of adoption of this Agreement and annually thereafter, publish amounts and detailed conditions of all their loans made during the previous fiscal year. Governments shall have standing in WEEC to sue for reimbursement of their share of the financing of such loans where conditions of those loans violate standards set forth in this Agreement.

17.02. The DAI shall publicly report within one year of its establishment and from time to time thereafter on the availability of private insurance for large and small corporations in international business, and shall be prepared to advise corporations regarding insurance for investment losses, or refer them to existing agencies.

Article 18. Investment and speculation

18.00. Investment and speculation must be distinguished and separated with respect to both international capital investment and money exchange, and be differently regulated for the common good.

18.01. The DAI shall, within one year of its establishment, inform the World Economic Parliament of policies--present and in the recently past-- among all countries pertaining to control of inward and outward capital flows, and any distinctions among types of investment and speculation. Within an additional six months DAI shall, in cooperation with LSOs, recommend a variety of policies to protect all segments of societies in different regions for damaging effects of speculation, and the conditions under which the policies are best applied.

18.02. After due consideration, including the advice of LSOs, within an additional six months, the WEP shall require all member countries transparently to implement within one year policies suitable to their conditions. Annually during the three years following this requirement, the DAI shall assess the effects of these policies on investment, trade, and social and environmental welfare--regionally and world-wide--and report within six months to the WEP, with appropriate recommendations.

Article 19. Regulatory fairness and corruption

19.00 governments have the duty to regulate industries and companies even- handedly to maximize the beneficial effects of competition and minimize anti- competitive and damaging behavior by corporations.

19.01. DAI shall fund, technically advise, and receive reports annually from each signatory country regarding the application of regulations and compliance in all sectors of its economy with respect to all aspects of business operation covered in this Agreement for all companies with assets greater than one billion dollars. DAI shall within two years publish an accounting and analysis of the adequacy of regulatory compliance for all such companies, classified by country of jurisdiction, home country, industrial sector, and type of regulation.

19.02. Companies aggrieved on account of differential compliance with standards among competitors internationally may request of any LSO in the region a public hearing, at which all parties and the general public as well as public officials, the complainant, and putative offending company are invited to testify. LSO shall strive to ascertain the diligence of the government in applying regulations, as well as the effort of the company to comply. LSO shall then seek the application of all helpful means of obtaining compliance with laws and community and industry standards. LSO and witnesses shall be immune from suit for libel in this matter.

19.03. Civil organizations and municipalities as well as companies alleging corruption of public officials by corporations or their agents shall have standing to sue both the offending corporations and allegedly corrupted officials in WEEC. All parties in such cases may apply to DAI or CTC for assistance in gathering evidence and evaluating the condition.

Article 20. Enforcement

20.00. This agreement stresses openness and constructive remediation before punishment, and would foster fairness and access, including financial, to corrective facilities for all aggrieved parties.

20.01. Settlement of disputes regarding CAIS violations may well be achieved informally or through domestic courts. When approached for assistance, LSOs and DAI shall use mediation and restitution techniques before assisting in prosecution before domestic courts or WEEC.

20.02. The World Economic Parliament shall study means of enforcement of WEEC judgments and shall specify corrective measures available to the Court.

20.03. Judgments of WEEC may be appealed to domestic high courts, but penalties must nevertheless be paid immediately even if appealed to a domestic court. Domestic courts may not grant damages against CAIS, but only seek to restore assets sacrificed by the plaintiff in WEEC action. If corporate decertification for international trade or investment had been a penalty, WEP is under no obligation to a domestic court to restore certification.

20.04. No legislative body of any country signatory to this Agreement shall make or maintain any law conflicting with this Agreement or preventing adequate consideration and deliberation or amendment of bills to implement provisions of this Agreement.

20.05. Any government or any company competing with any other company in international investment, or any civil organization impacted by such investment in alleged violation of CAIS, shall have standing, because of loss of tangible assets, to dispute the right of the investing company to do business in the host country or locality, and to seek remedy for violation of this Agreement. If this right is first rejected by petition to an appropriate domestic court, then where the defendant is a corporation certified in international trade or investment, it may be heard by WEEC.

20.06. If a corporation is judged guilty of unlawful conduct by a court in any signatory country in which it operates, it shall suffer the penalties imposed by that country. Upon request of an LSO the monetary value of its misconduct shall be determined by the DAI, including inhibitory effects on the economy of that country. Exports of its products or services to its home country shall be subject to triple tariffs from the date of judgment, or retroactively in flagrant cases, until such time as the full value of the misconduct is paid to the offended country or countries plus all legal expenses. If the regular tariff on that type of good or service is zero or virtually zero, the basis for tripling shall be the average of tariff rates charged in that country across all sectors. The details of the basis of judgment shall be published and be made generally available.

20.07. Under rules set by the World Economic Parliament, WEEC may recommend to a host country sanctions consistent with its licensing agreement with an offending corporation. The Court may require that an offending company pay to impacted parties--civil, public, or corporate-- material and/or punitive damages commensurate with harms enumerated in this Agreement under pain of decertification by WEP of the company in international trade or investment.

Article 21. Decision-making models

21.00. To help international companies cope with regulatory diversity, governments and international institutions should provide research and assistance in developing and applying complex socio-economic models for industrial and commercial decision making in contexts of multiple regulatory agencies.

21.01. Within one year of adoption of this Agreement DAI shall sponsor a conference of diverse experts and other interested persons to design and launch a program of mathematical modeling and computer programming to address the difficulties of investors in assessing opportunities in areas with differing regulations. The goals of the conference shall include not only starting a practical program for investors, but also for educating the public. DAI shall subsequently make funding available to countries and Local System Organizations (LSOs) for these purposes.

21.02. Similarly, DAI may at their request fund conferences sponsored by LSOs to develop mathematical or other models to improve local economic planning and implementation, and for involving local businesses, civil organizations, and the public.

21.03. UE, in consultation with DAI and possible funding from DAI, may devise or develop ways to enable ordinary, busy people to understand complex economic decisions and their effects.

Article 22. Incorporating united nations and other accords, Supersession.

22.00. Governments have the duty to deliberate all united nations compacts affecting international investment systems and with published proceedings to ratify or reject each.

22.01. With all deliberate speed the World Economic Parliament shall consider international accords bearing on international investment and its consequences including, but not limited to, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights; accords of the International Labor Organization; the World Summit for Social Development 1995; and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, as well as agreements and drafts cited in Article (1.006). WEP shall then foster public discussion in all countries at all levels of government on the nature of these documents, their historical role, and their potential impact on economies locally, regionally, and globally.

22.02. WEP shall encourage all parliaments still undecided to ratify or reject the relevant documents, with published full proceedings.

22.03. With all deliberate speed WEP shall subsequently deliberate which documents to integrate into this Agreement, in whole or in part, and how and when to introduce and integrate them into the text. WEP shall then recommend amendments to this Agreement to serve those purposes.

22.04. This Agreement shall supersede conflicting provisions of all international trade and investment agreements among signatories, apart from UN-sponsored charters, declarations, covenants, and other UN accords.

Article 23. Arms industry control and nato

23.00. As major polluters and abettors of undemocratic governments, repression and wars, arms industries should come under direct government control, democratically ensuring transparency and justification to civil international bodies for product development, production, and distribution.

23.01. Arms manufacturers shall comply with all sections of this Agreement. Exceptions, e.g., for secret research, development and deployment, may be made only after review by the WEP in consultation with the Security Council of the United Nations. WEP may call upon members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) governments and other organizations involved in arms distribution to provide evidence as to how human security may be increased by the arms development and distribution in question. WEP may further require such military officials to explain the control of weapons systems which may be resold or redistributed, and to account for weapons known to be in the possession or control of forces outside NATO.

23.02. With the assistance of DAI in gathering and assessing information, WEP may in consultation with United Nations agencies set limits on the existence of weaponry of all kinds, and set a schedule for reduction of such weaponry, as part of a larger plan for increasing human security, concerned with reductions of tensions including tensions associated with military buildups, sponsorship, and disinformation.

23.03. DAI shall fund research and other activities, including education and training, of civil organizations in the development of plans and capability for the reduction and elimination of war, and for the development of strategic nonviolent defense capabilities among communities, regions, and oppressed minorities. Strategic nonviolent defense shall not be limited to defense against military threat or action, but shall extend to nonviolent defense against economic coercion or limitation of human rights by governments, corporations, or other organizations.

23.04. WEP shall foster the extension or expansion of NATO's and other military personnel to nonmilitary activity for the common good, such as building civil infrastructure, educational and health facilities, or environmental restoration in regions lacking appropriate resources or finance.

Article 24. Ratification, accession, amendment, and withdrawal

24.00. This agreement is freely ratified and supported by the governments of all the peoples herein represented. As conditions change amendment may become necessary or desirable. For peoples unwilling to adapt to the majority of others, it is their right to withdraw at will and without penalty other than reasonably meeting the obligations already incurred herein.

24.01. This Agreement shall go into effect upon ratification by twenty or more countries, with a minimum of two in each of the continents of Europe, Africa, mainland Asia, North America including Central America and the Caribbean, the island countries of the Pacific and southeast Asia, and South America. Ratification shall involve all levels of government in open discussion with citizens in civil society, and certification by normal procedures of the highest legislative body in the country for establishing international agreements.

24.02. Additional countries may join this Agreement by ratification as described in Article (24.01).

24.03. This Agreement may be amended by certification of the proposed amendment by three- quarters of the signatory countries, using the same procedure as for ratification.

24.04. Any signatory country may withdraw from this Agreement at any time without penalty but continuing with obligations already incurred under the Agreement, including publication of the full record of their proceedings leading to withdrawal.

24.05. In the case of any country the legitimacy of whose government is challenged by all contig uous countries, or by ten member countries of CAIS, the country may participate fully in all the activities and privileges of the Agreement but without vote in the institutions created herein.

* * *

Institutions cited: Introduced in Article:

CTC Center on Transnational Corporations*** 2.115
DAI Development Assistance Institute** 2.101
Electoral Commission* 2.110
EU European Union 1.06
ILO International Labor Organization 1.01
IMF International Monetary Fund 2.302
Land Use Survey* 4.01
LSO Local System Organization** 2.001
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement 1.06
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization 23.01
TNC Transnational Corporation 2.401
UE University of Enterprise** 2.501
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade & Development 2.401
ECOSOC United Nations Economic and Social Council 2.203
United Nations General Assembly 2.702
United Nations Population Commission 2.108
United Nations Security Council 23.01
WB World Bank 2.113
WEEC World Economic and Environmental Court** 2.301
WEP World Economic Parliament** 2.210
WTO World Trade Organization 1.06

* new with this Agreement **major new institution ***revived

AECD Drafting Panel:
Clark Arrington Lawyer, Coffee importer
Ed Bourgeois Sheep farmer
Catherine Briggs Public health physician
Peter Capano Electrician, Union officer
Mike Corgan Retired naval officer, History professor
Charles Derber Sociology professor, Author
David Lewit (Chair)† Social psychologist, Activist
Jean Maryborn Religious and environmental worker
Ama Agnes Mundi Human services worker, native of Cameroon
Priscilla Offenhauer Labor historian
Kenneth Parker Editor of books on trade, Alderman
Nick Penniman Citizen organization coordinator, Editor
Gulshan Saini Soil scientist, native of India
Angela Sanfilippo Fishermen's wives association director, native
of Italy

† Contact chair at:
271 Dartmouth St #2H, Boston MA, USA. Tel & fax: 617-266-8687
E-mail < DLewit@igc.org  > CAIS on web at http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org