Date of Award
2001
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
In order to address the environmental concerns raised by the existence of a continent-wide free trade zone, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Canada, United States and Mexico created an environmental side agreement, the North American Agreement for Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC). NAAEC established the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), a trilateral body created to help the NAFTA Parties achieve the goal of free trade while at the same time avoiding or lessening environmental industrial degradation. Although imperfect, the NAAEC embodies several processes that were innovative. The key innovation is the Citizen Submission Process that allows citizens and NGOs to make submissions asserting that a Party is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws. This is a tremendous advance, which for the first time in the history of such agreements allows for public participation in the enforcement of environmental law. The main focus of this thesis is a discussion and critique of the Citizen Submission Process. In order to situate the discussion in the appropriate context, the thesis has six parts.
Recommended Citation
Jaime Miguel Carreno-Martinez, The Citizen Submission Process of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (LLM Thesis, Dalhousie University, 2001) [unpublished].
