Imperial A Hilton San Francisco and Towers Ballroom Level
Joint Program of Sections on International Law, Labor Relations and Employment Law and North American Cooperation David D. Caron, University of California at Berkeley, and Chair, Section on International Law Cynthia E. Nance, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and Chair, Section on Labor Relations and Employment Law Marley Weiss, University of Maryland, and Chair and Program Chair, Section on North American Cooperation
Procedures and Remedies under NAFTA and Its Labor and Environmental Side Agreements: Comparative Reflections on International Dispute Resolution Mechanisms
Moderator:
Marley Weiss, University of Maryland
Speakers:
Robert E. Lutz II, Southwestern University John McKennirey, Director General of Strategic Policy and International Labour Affairs, Department of Human Resources Development Canada, Hull, Quebec, Canada [View Program Material] John D. Wirth, Gildred Professor of Latin American Studies, Department of History, Stanford University, Stanford, California [View Program Material]
The North American Free Trade Agreement, and its side agreements on labor and one environmental cooperation, includes several different dispute resolution processes. This panel will examine these procedures, both separately and in comparative and historical perspective.
Although all but one of the speakers holds an academic position, each speaker has also been integrally involved in the design, application, or elaboration of dispute resolution mechanisms under these agreements. Each will focus primarily on the agreement with which he has been mainly concerned, but comparisons across each of the three agreements will also be drawn. Divergent attitudes of the Mexican bench and bar to alternative dispute resolution processes, as well as the different views of American and Canadian parties, epitomize the complexities of developing an acceptable dispute resolution process against the backdrop of contrasting legal cultures and legal systems among the three countries. Alternative dispute resolution theories, international and comparative law approaches, and historical analysis may be brought to bear in considering the suitability of each of the dispute resolution mechanisms, procedures and remedies.
Panelists will consider the extent to which these interpretation and enforcement mechanisms operate to advance the objectives of the agreement under consideration, as well as the different meanings a procedure may convey in various member countries because of pre-existing legal institutions. They may assess the extent to which the actual operation of the dispute resolution processes of these agreements conforms to theoretical expectations. In addition, they may suggest modifications to either the tri-national agreements themselves, or the procedures developed under them, which could improve the fit between the procedures and the objectives of pertinent provisions of the agreements.
The panel will also address the legitimacy of the contention that environmental and labor issues are devalued by their relegation to side agreements. It will consider the pros and cons and potential consequences of including them in the main trade agreement and rendering their enforcement subject to the same procedures and remedies as the trade provisions themselves, as well as the consequences for each of the three agreements of such an incorporation.