Trade wars: Why the central pillar of global order is in danger of collapse as TTIP disintegrates

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The accord clearly raises red flags over who sets the law and holds the whip hand in parliamentary democracies. Critics argue that it creates special tribunals outside the normal court system (investor-state dispute settlements or ISDS) that effectively allows companies to overturn laws passed by elected legislatures.

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This is already common practice, but that is precisely the problem. Citizens feel increasingly overwhelmed by global forces beyond their control. There are already 57 such tribunals in action around the world, stemming from a plethora of little-known treaties, each with their own secretariat. Their workload has been soaring over the last fifteen years, rising to 600 cases annually.

These structures have emerged as the episcopacy of globalisation, a powerful nexus of supra-national bodies accruing powers at the expense of national parliaments, and at the margins of accountability.

Some say Brexit was the first primordial scream against this emerging world order. If so, the grass-roots uprising against the TTIP project may be the second.