Plain tobacco packaging and investment proceedings on the issue has been described as an affront to the rule of law in Australia. Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said that big tobacco and other global corporations are lobbying hard to include the right of foreign investors to sue governments in the current negotiations for a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). Philip Morris International lost its case in December 2015. In November 2011, British American Tobacco announced that it would challenge the laws in the High Court as soon as they gained royal assent. In August 2012, the High
Plain tobacco packaging the second country in the world to introduce plain cigarette packaging. In June 2014, the Irish government said it would legislate to implement plain packaging. Details of the bill known as the "Public Health (Standardised Packaging of Tobacco) Bill 2014" were published on 10 June 2014. "There is a wealth of international evidence on the effects of tobacco packaging in general and on perceptions and reactions to standardised packaging which support the introduction of this measure," Ireland's Health Minister James Reilly said when releasing details of the bill. The bill was signed by President Michael D. Higgins on 10 March