During the 21st century, the capitalistic economy shifted toward a corporate or megacorporate economy. This transformation took place in the half of the century, between 1999 and 2042, creating the world as we know it today. Three decisions of the US Supreme Court, between 1999 and 2001, are usually considered as the starting point for a series of events that led to the advent of megacorporations and the Corporate Court.

The United States versus Seretech Corporation (1999)
The US truckers strike that started in late 1998 caused serious food shortage in New York City. On February 21st, 1999, in Staten Island, rioters attacked a refrigerated truck of Seretech corporation, thinking it was transporting food. The load happened to be hazardous medical waste. Seretech employees on-board the truck used their weapons to repel the rioters. The truck remained blocked until other employees from Seretech security service arrived. It was finally escorted to a Seretech facility in Linden, New Jersey. Rioters surrounded the building and tried to breach the compound. In the morning of February 22nd, the police finally intervened to end the siege. The body-count reached 20 dead among Seretech employees and 200 rioters.
The shooting having taken place in the states of New York and New Jersey, the US Department of Justice took the case and charged Seretech for criminal negligence. The Lynch Administration hoped it could use the case to put an halt to the growth of private security forces. The reaction of the Seretech employees and the use of force to prevent the looting the vehicle and the building and serious public health risks, could hardly be questioned. The charge instead focused on the decisions taken by Seretech first to transport hazardous medical waste while riots and looting were underway in most of New York City, and then to move the vehicle to Linden, several kilometers away, instead of seeking the protection of any of the much closer police stations. The main evidence was the several hours-long, full transcript of communications between the guards, the head of security and the management.
Seretech was first condemned, but won appeal. The Second Circuit court decision already contained the major points of the Supreme Court decision that would come later. It ruled all the consequences that result or may result for a corporation activities fall under its responsibilities. The state, by authorizing a private company to transport hazardous waste, was authorizing it and obliging it to take the necessary measures for this transport. This responsibility was continuous, and justified the corporation use all necessary and available means, rather than shift the burden on the community. What the decision called "continuity of responsibility" was quickly nicknamed the "first bullet principle" : in a famous interview, a consultant for Law TV explained that, according to this decision, if one Seretech employee was in a condition that justified firing a shot, the entire security of Seretech could have been sent to the rescue from all fifty states in New York and empty their magazines if deemed necessary.
The administration, willing to have Seretech condemned, brought the case to the Supreme Court before the end of 1999. Finally, in a 193-pages decision, methodically exploring the legal nature of corporations since Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), and the responsibilities arising from their commercial activities, the Supreme Court found in avor of Seretech.
It also went further than the court of appeals. Reminding the corporations' constitutional rights, as moral persons, had been recognized by Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad (1886), it ruled that corporate security forces were to be considered as "well regulated militia," as stated by the Second Amendment. This line of reasoning was severely limiting the administration possibilities to oppose corporate security forces.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission versus Shiawase Corporation (2000)
The Shiawase corporation opened in 1997 an aluminum production factory in California. The plant was powered by the regional utility grid. Electricity price went through a 550% rising over six months. Shiawase filed a request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to build a nuclear power plant. They planned to install a small nuclear reactor, similar to a research reactor, would have had a limited output only dedicated to power the factory.
Shiawase request was turned down by the NRC. The commission was arguing the hazard presented by nuclear power plant were acceptable only if they were balanced by public interest ; for this reason, they refused to allow a nuclear reactor that did not have a direct commercial or research purpose. The case was brought to justice, up the the Supreme Court. Shiawase claimed it was fulfilling all the requirements for such plant, and its output would answer to their existing needs. It accused the commission of overriding its prerogatives by intervening not on the electricity market, but on the aluminum market.
The NRC thought they had a strong legal basis : Wickard v. Filburn (1942) had long established the government power to regulate trade allowed it to regulate non-commercial activities that had an impact on trade. Aware of their opponent's strategy, Shiawase lawyers shattered it as the trial started. Wickard v. Filburn allowed the government to prevent overproduction to drive up agricultural price, while in this case, both the electricity and aluminum production were unable to reach the demand, and rising price weren't, the government itself admitted it, a goal they pursued.
Predictably, the NRC lost in the district court and the Ninth Circuit court of appeal. The case went to the Supreme Court. Again, judges validated Shiawase lawyers line of reasoning on trade regulation, authorizing the building of the nuclear plant. But the case also made the Supreme Court review all the requirements the NRC had put on. Among them, the NRC required local police forces to be permanently involved in the plant security. This regulation had been put into place precisely to get around United States v. Seretech (1999), who made the authorities the last resort when a corporation was unable to fulfill its obligations. The Supreme Court, seemingly disgruntled to see their recent holding already contested by the executive power, struck down the demand, reaffirming the corporations' responsibility in securing their activities ahead of any government involvement.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission versus Shiawase Corporation (2001)
The lawsuit of Shiawase against the NRC brought the media attention on the Shiawase factory and power plant, which was built in a few months (most elements had already been built in Singapore). Members of the terrorist ecological group Terrafirst attempted shortly after to break in the power plant to plant a bomb. Well-equipped and prepared, they were able to reach the outside of the containment zone before they were detected and neutralized by the security personnel.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission wanted to use the case to force Shiawase into closing their plant, by going to court again, for criminal negligence and reckless endangerment. Shiawase demonstrated to the court its security forces could have stopped a terrorist attack three times larger, and the terrorists have been able to enter the site only because the NRC had forced Shiawase to separate the nuclear power plant security system from the aluminium production factory. Shiawase argument also detailed several dozen of regulations and laws whose enforcement were weakening the power plant security level.
Following the recent decisions United States v. Seretech (1999) and Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Shiawase (2000), Shiawase reminded it had security obligations when exploiting a nuclear power plant. If the government was enacting laws and regulations who prevented the adequate level of security for a nuclear plant, then it couldn't allow its exploitation. It was implicitly doing it by not allowing a private person to built a nuclear reactor. Calling upon both Lochner v. New York (1905) and West Coast Hotel Co. v. Parrish (1937), the corporation's lawyers were reminding the Supreme Court permitted the government to restrict the liberty of contract guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments only for specific reasons, to protect security, health, morals and the welfare of the people. When a regulation or a law resulted in actually threatening security, health, morals or the welfare of the people, the government should no longer retain such permission. Shiawase gave the court and the government a choice: shut down all the nuclar power plants in the US, or give their owner a complete freedom to fulfill the security requirements. Their argument used for the first time the concept of corporate extraterritoriality to ask for a differentiated enforcement of the law inside corporation facilities.
After several weeks of deliberation, the Supreme Court gave its verdict, in favor of Shiawase. Foreseeing the consequences of their decision, the judges attempted to limit its reach. They detailed the activities for which jurisprudence allowed to affirm they could affect without doubt security, health, morals and welfare. In addition to nuclear power plants, they extended the reasoning to chemicals, waste processing, armaments and services related to national security, water and food supplies, and hospitals. In these activities, the corporations and their providers and subcontractors were having from then on a complete freedom of contract. The government could no longer regulate beyond customers contracts. Salaries, working hours, security procedures and measures, and use of equipment or process were now free of any sort of regulations as long as it did not affect the product or the service sold. The judges also restricted this freedom of contract to the working place, thus preventing employers to infringe on employees rights outside. They were establishing the extraterritoriality principle Shiawase lawyers had exposed.

In the United States
At the moment, the very technique Supreme Court decision did not seem to have really far-reaching consequences. The corporation weren't to infringe on criminal law : their employees were still US residents, and they were still cooperating with law enforcement agencies when a crime was commited inside their facilities. All the way, the government had no alternative: it was the intent of the judges to restrict their decision to the most vital industries, and as such, it was unthinkable to stop them, or to nationalize any company. The Hunt Administration put those industries under an intense scrutiny and enforced more and more stringent regulations upon their products and polluting emissions. This policy resulted in eliminating the smaller players, unable to adapt to the quickly evolving legal environment. Shiawase was targeted by numerous and frequent controls and investigations. The corporation used the situation to its advantage, communicating on its the rules and codes of conduct it put into places to improve its employees' working conditions further. It also created many jobs as it expanded its nuclear energy branch in the US. Among the other companies who pioneered the use of extraterritoriality, General Motors managed to greatly improve the productivity in its batteries and body paints production units (who were classified as chemical industry), building an expertise that made its subsidiaries Delphi and EDS to become the largest subcontractors for companies operating under extraterritorial status.
But the oil and mining companies will be the first to use the new system to its full extent. Starting in 2002, they were able to get extraterritorial status for their exploitation sites by having them classified as chemicals or waste processing plants, because of the compounds used. Some even managed to have shale gas site counted as water supply facilities, while the water was only used for hydraulic fracturing and was actually polluting surrounding aquifers. These artifices opened the door for the exploitation of natural and indian reserves, actively supported by the Bester administration after 2005. By the end of the decade, the number of corporations benefiting from extraterritoriality while not being directly concerned by the Supreme Court decision was so high the Congress passed a law that allowed the Department of Commerce to grant extraterritorial status to any company of "national importance." The administration widely used it for all activities related to the crackdown on amerindian tribes.

In the rest of the world
In the late 2000s, the United States enjoyed a period of economic growth, largely due to lower of raw materials and energy, and the rebuilding of New York after the 2005 earthquake (in spite of the human and material lost, this tragic event benefited heavily to the construction industry, in New York as well as Boston, where a lot of companies moved). In the rest of the world, governments were eager to copy, either partly or totally, the US recipe.
In Japan, the large corporations like Shiawase and Mitsuhama pressured the government, threatening to move a growing part of their activities to the US. Shiawase especially, used its US branch as the demonstration of the benefits of extraterritorial status. When the government amended the Constitution to allow the Japanese troops to intervene unrestricted against North Korea, the laws governing corporate affairs were substantially modified and relaxed. Shortly after, Korea adopted a similar legislation, to support economical cooperation between the two countries and encourage Japanese companies to invest in North Korea.
In Europe, economical liberalization also became a major political issue. In spite of the French and Scandinavian reluctance, the European Union imposed a labor deregulation, allowing EU companies to operate anywhere in the Union under the law and regulation of their country of origin. The Keruba International consortium of Slovenia was among those who heavily used the opportunity to employ cheaper labor and work under less stringent procedures. However, the scope of these decisions was considerably less important than the US extraterritorial status. It did not prevent opponents from likening the two and over exaggerating its reach. US pundits themselves were inclined to see the European policy as a proof of the US economical leadership.
In the other countries of the world, the Shiawase decision had little effect. But the growing number and size of their security forces gave the corporations more independence in the Third World and developing countries. They were no longer dependent from the local authorities or the Western countries military forces to defend their interests.

The first corporate war
The corporate autonomy became obvious during the conflict between Keruba and BMW in 2010. Earlier in the decade, Keruba was the first company to provide a vectored-thrust armored vehicle. The first projects, led by western companies, to develop such vehicles failed because a massive cost that the military budget of the time could not afford. Keruba product was leaner and simpler. Several Eastern European countries bought it, but also some special forces units from Western countries. Its success prompted other companies to go back to the drawing board.
In 2010, BMW showed a prototype, built around a new engine conceived by its subsidiary BMW Rolls-Royce and top-of-the-line electronic components. The order book was soon full, at the expense of Keruba. BMW research & development laboratory in Dahlewitz, near Berlin, was raided by armed men and firebombed. The investigators hired by BMW didn't wait for the German police report to conclude that they were mercenaries paid by Keruba. Michel Beloit, the CEO of BMW, decided to strike back with a string of black ops against Keruba. The first one was a computer attack of Keruba communication network, that almost send a satellite crashing into Earth.
The cost of the damages dealt to both companies amounted to almost a billion dollars. The events were stiffled, but it didn't pass unnoticed. Even though military technology was at stake, government agencies were voluntarily kept out by both corporations. It must be said that, at least on the German side, the Bundeswehr wasn't considering vectored-thrust armored vehicle as a key concern. Other governements on the other hand worried that an official investigation would unveil details on contracts and fuding of these armements companies.

The Inter-corporate Council
International arbitrage used so far by corporation to settle litigation proved unable to deal with such situations fast enough. Seven corporation, including BMW and Keruba International, along with Shiawase, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies, Ares Industries (formerly General Motors), JRJ International and ORO, created in 2011 the Inter-corporate council, a permanent arbitrage body. But the delegates sent to the council by the corporation actually were low-ranking executives, cautiously kept in the dark about the situation and facts. In 2013, the council arbitration was ineffective when it came to the conflict between Keruba and ORO. A serie of computer attacks led by hackers working for both companies extended into the physical world, and subsequent actions resulted in dozen of casualties. The failure of the Inter-corporate council was patent.

The Corporate Court
It took ten years before for a new initiative to see the light of day. Oblivious of their previous failure, the same corporations who established the Inter-corporate Council agreed to reform it and grant it new powers. The corporate court was founded in 2023. This court is made of thirteen permanent justices, elected for a 78 months term after being recommanded by a corporation. The court statutes, still in effect, provide that each of the seven founding corporations - Ares Industries, Aztechnology (formerly ORO), BMW, JRJ International, Keruba International, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies and Shiawase - was to always retain at least one justice it recommanded.
These new statutes also provided the corporation had to submit all litigations to the court, to hand complete and non-redacted documentation, and that their executive officers could be summoned to the court and heard in person. More important, the court could enact sanctions the other corporations were to carry out against the offender. Officially, possible sanctions should have been limited to termination of all business relations, loan denial, cancelling of patent use authorization, and blocking of communication networks interconnections. Unofficially, bear raids on stock markets and industrial sabotage have always been carried out along with these sanctions, as part of a true strategy of intimidation. The aim was to federate the largest possible number of multinationals, which were commited themselves to restrain for any action that would be harmful to international trade (such as high frenquency trading, Internet overload and creating orbital debris), while keeping an eye on each other.
The Corporate Court was wielding real power. Because of the rivalry between them, none of the seven founders was willing to relinquish the justices seats it held. Other corporations started complaining about this dead-lock situation, and several considered withdrawing and no longer submit their litigation to the court. The 2029 computer crash and the economical crisis that followed forced the corporations to close ranks behind the biggest and most important ones. It is also when the corporations of the corporate court offered the World Bank shareholding countries to buy back developping countries' debts. Because of the economical crisis, developped countries needed extra incomes to balance their budgets. The corporations founded the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinshaft Bank in Switzerland, who now was the main financial institution in the world. The world economy was now firmly in the hands of corporations.

The Business Recognition Accords
The corporate system was modeled by history and events. It finally was reorganized in 2042. The Corporate Court proposed that year to the governments of the world the Business Recognition Accords, the BRA. In 2039, the corporations were victorious against the French governement to determine the privileges they should have in France. The BRA aim was to define an international standard for corporate extraterritoriality, how it applied and who benefited from it. Most government ratified the BRA (Manchuria, Yaku, Amazonia, Tir Tairngire, Ireland, Switzerland and Aztlan are among the countries who refused to do so). To reach this goal, the corporations submitted a limited extraterritorial regime, as it is in effect in Pueblo and CAS for instance. The governements who wished were still allowed to grant more freedom to the corporations, like it's done in the UCAS, to attract more investments.
The most major point in the accords was the legal value of the Corporate Court rating. The accords held that extraterritorial privileges were due to corporations who received AA or AAA rating. A rating is given to all multinational companies requiring it. AA rating is granted under conditions of size, diversification and stability. AAA rating signals a corporation economical weight justifies it to be represented on the court. The Corporate Court was willing to deter some governments to grant privileges to smaller corporations who weren't acknowledging its authority. These rules were also supposed to prevent corporations with limited guarantees from having armed forces or financial commitment that would be out of control in case of bankruptcy.
The BRA finally gave the Corporate Court full recognition as an international institution. This made it more difficult for the corporations who were tempted to leave the court and create their own new arbitrage body. As a sign of good faith, the seven founders finally allowed one new corporation to be represented on the court. Yamatetsu was chosen, as a way to draw support from the Japanese government for the BRA to be ratified. This situation was to prevail for the following twenty years.

Operation: Reciprocity and the Veracruz Settlement
The international legitimacy newly acquired by the Corporate Court was quickly put on trial. In 2044, the Aztlan governement announced it renounced to ratfying the Business Recognition Accords and was putting an end to the negotiations with the Corporate Court. In order not to go against the policies promoted by the Corporate Court in the rest of the world, and which it said it was fully supporting, the Aztlan government asked the corporations operating inside its territory to carry out "adjustments". What Aztlan authorities were requiring basically amounted to nationalization.
This decision caused a major diplomatic crisis. The Corporate Court enforced a strings of economical sanctions against Aztlan with the support of nearly all corporations. Their impact was limited because of Aztechnology lack of cooperation. They allowed Aztlan to circumvent sanctions through trades between the corporation and its subsidiaries in the rest of the world. Despite its refusal to comply with the sanctions, Aztechnology couldn't be revoked from the Court because of the by-laws provisions regarding its status as a founding member. It had already took lengthy discussion for these founding members to agree for a new corporation to enter the court, and most of them weren't willing to reform it in a way that could prove detrimental to them later. The risk for the court was to look powerless again, which even allowed Aztechnology to threaten at the same time to willingly leave the court to get back its right to call on another arbitrage body.
For nearly four years, the negotiations were carried out and broke off several times, from official summit to secret meeting, punctuated by press releases and media leaks. In multiple occasions, accumulated tensions would lead to armed exchanges, like between Aztechnology and Shiawase security forces in Seattle in 2047, which will involve vectored-thrust armored vehicles.
The Corporate Court finally opted for a show of force in 2048. When the use of force was raised at the court in the beginning of 2048, Aztechnology kept on with diplomatic posturing and protests. A "pan-corporate security comittee" gathered in secret representatives from the corporations of the court, except Aztechnology. The operation planned was to be an aerial raid, involving units of Ares Macrotechnology, Fuchi Industrial Electronics, Mitsuhama Computer Technologies and Saeder-Krupp (Renraku Computer Systems, Shiawase and Yamatetsu contributions would only concern logistical assets). A deception force made of drones flown from Puerto Rico entered Aztlan air space from east. At the same time, aircraft carriers off the California coast used the cover provided by a Japanese fleet that left Alameda for naval exercices. The Japanese vessels leaves the area, while corporate fighter-bombers attack air defenses in San Diego area. Finally, a fleet of strategic bombers, stationned in the Ute, strike at Aztechnology unit in Ensenada.
The attacks only targeted Aztechnology assets, without directly hitting governmental forces. The court stayed within the framework of sanctions against a corporation. Because of its size and the risks taken, and in spite of the damage caused being in the end quite minor, the operation led by the Corporat Court sent a message: the corporations were ready to use force when they considered it necessary. The message was well understood. Aztechnology never seriously considered to retaliate. In the following weeks, new negotiations finally gave birth to the Veracruz Settlement. The Aztlan governement agreed to pay additional compensation to the corporations whose subsidiaries had been nationalized (actually paid for the most part by Aztechnology). Aztlan was not ratifying the Business Recognition Accords, but acknowledged through a separate text the Corporate Court authority on international trade.

The 2057 Corporate War
Between August 2057 and February 2059, a serie of events prompted a new corporate war, this time on several fronts. The first trigger was the assassination of great dragon Dunkelzahn, freshly elected president of the UCAS, on August 9, 2057. In his will, he disseminated parts of stock portfolio, including shares in Ares Macrotechnology, Aztechnology, Fuchi Industrial Electronics and Renraku Computer Systems. He also bequeathed large sums to the Wuxing and Yakashima corporatons.
Around the same time, Renraku Computer Systems initiated Project 5, a major research and development project that quickly led to the release of revolutionary electronic and computer products. Fuchi Industrial Electronics, who was so far dominating the electronics and computers market, was the most severely hit. Fuchi legal services gathered evidence of industrial espionnage attempts that could be traced back to Renraku. Fuchi filed claim with the Corporate Court in June 2059. It specifically accused Miles Lanier, who joined Renraku board of directors September 2057, of disclosing information he received in his previous position as Fuchi head of security. Renraku answers by filing a claim against Fuchi also for industrial espionage, backed by several documents from Fuchi. These cases were the most serious ever brought against a AAA corporation on the court. For 72 hours during which the court delibarated behind closed doors, all military forces of the largest corporations were on maximum alert. The Corporate Court opted for appeasement, forcing for a settlement. Lanier was required to sell his shares in Renraku to the Zurich-Orbital Gemeinshaft Bank and leave Renraku board of directors. The case had consequences inside Fuchi. The other shareholders dictated president/CEO Richard Villiers to abandon entire segments of the electronics and computers to Renraku. Disagreeing with this strategy, Villiers arranged for Fuchi subsidiaries put on sale to be bought by two companies, Villiers International and Cambridge Holdings. In October 2059, he announced he was leaving Fuchi Industrial Electronics to fully commit to Novatech, the corporation born from the merger of Villiers International and Cambridge Holdings. He also had secretly the sale by Fuchi to the new company of its subsidiary JRJ International. Novatech could thus claim a representation on the Corporate Court, as the parent company to one of the court founding corporation. When Lynn Osborne, judge presented by Fuchi, announced she was joigning Novatech, Fuchi was stripped of a representation on the court, putting it mechanically back to AA rating at least until the next election. The corporation situation was actually so bad that it was already clear this was not going to happen.
During the same period, the Corporate Court was facing another critical issue. After the death of Tadamako Shibanokuji, President/CEO of Yamatetsu, in February 2059, a new management arrived. Its first decisions were to streamline activities in Japan and invest in other countries in the Asia-Pacific area. Yamatetsu officially joined the Pacific Prosperity Group (PPG), an economical organization whose goal clearly was to act as a counterweight to Japanese corporations in the area. By establishing its own internal arbitrage system, the PPG offered to partially replace the Corporate Court, which have had a strong Japanese block. To keep the PPG inside the Corporate Court's fold, Wuxing, the most influential corporation inside the PPG, was offered to present a judge in July 2059 (in order to replace judge David Hague, killed in an air crash). The plan went as those who designed it expected it, Wuxing took advantage of its newfound international status, progressively setting aside the interest of the PPG smaller members.
Changes to the corporate landscape ended in 2060, as Cross Applied Technologies entered the Corporate Court as a new member (it was replaced later, in 2065, by Horizon) and Fuchi Industrial Electronics dissolved, its Asian assets being bought by Renraku Computer Systems, and the European assets by Shiawase.