> I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding representative democracies. Nothing about them says the can't enter into an agreement to create a pan-national b

> I think you're fundamentally misunderstanding representative democracies. Nothing about them says the can't enter into an agreement to create a pan-national body to settle trade disputes, as opposed to escalating every incident to a diplomatic dispute. If people don't like that they'll make in an election issue, and either it'll be re-negotiated after the next election or the nation will leave the trade agreement. That's the democratic process at work. Quite. Is someone proposing that we do otherwise? If not, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. > Or you could look at this from the flip side of that argument, which is that it's detrimental to international trade if companies can't make international investments without being at risk to domastic political whimsy that runs counter to the spirit of the trade deal that was initially agreed upon. I'm not sure why governments should be more concerned about promoting international trade than about protecting their citizens. See e.g. the fracking thing upthread.