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Title: The Environment and Nafta: Understanding and Implementing the New Continental Law by Pierre Marc Johnson, Andre Beaulieu, Victor Lichtinger ISBN: 1-55963-468-5 Publisher: Island Press Pub. Date: January, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $40.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4 (1 review)

Rating: 4
Summary: interesting description of melding environment & trade
Comment: The authors have written a book that traces historically the "greening" of NAFTA. They emphasize the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) both in the negotiation of NAFTA and in future monitoring and enforcement. The authors make predictions about the environmental effects of NAFTA's implementation, but provide no discussion of its actual effects as the data were only beginning to be collected as the book went to press.

The book's orientation on environmental issues tends to be political rather than economic or legal. At the international level, this is understandable and even necessary. As the authors note, "in the international context, the boundaries between law and policy remain very porous and each informs the other." The emphasis on politics rather than law nevertheless disappoints, since the title of this otherwise excellent book promises an "understanding of the new continental law." Of course the authors do discuss knotty "legal" issues that arise under NAFTA and the NAAEC. For example, "What Is an Environmental Law?" is the title of Chapter 8, one of the chapters discussing the enforcement provisions of NAFTA.

From a legal standpoint, what is missing from the book is an exposition of the background of the international law of the environment so that the reader will understand how NAFTA would work in the absence of its environmental side-agreement. This is the crux of concerns about "pollution havens as investment magnets," also known under the catchwords "exporting pollution" or "race to the bottom." Should environmental standards be imposed on a trading partner under a trade agreement? In the absence of an agreement on environmental standards, the international law of the environment only forbids a state from causing substantial damage to the territory of other states, or to areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction; it does not prevent a state from exploiting and even recklessly depleting its own resources.

The authors' conclusions are presented in Part V. Here one wishes that the authors would abandon their statesmanlike impartiality and their "wait-and-see" attitude and take a firm stand on at least some of the issues. Nonetheless, Johnson and Beaulieu do not break character even in stating their conclusions. For example, the authors refer to the omission of some environmental arguments that support integration of liberalized trade with environmental protection as "not reassuring." An opportunity to provide improved market access for environmentally friendly products "was probably missed." The enforcement provisions are "somewhat half-hearted," and the economic rationality of the trade requirement in NAAEC's dispute settlement procedure "remains in question." Despite this shortcoming, this is an interesting and readable book the strength of which lies in describing, rather than influencing, the important political process of melding environmental protection with the liberalization of trade.

For further critique and analysis, see Professor Lundmark's review at 24 Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review 477. For further reading, see Lundmark and McNeece, State and Local Government Participation in Solving Environmental Problems at the U.S.-Mexican Border, 3 Journal of Environmental Law & Practice 37 (1995).