The First Decade of NAFTA: The Future of Free Trade in North America

This volume provides practitioners, academics and students with the first definitive coverage of NAFTA investment arbitration. Given the level of foreign direct investment within the NAFTA countries, the issue of redress for states in investment cases is a major one. The state dispute settlement mechanisms within NAFTAs Chapter Eleven are recognised as a model worthy of close examination. The experts and scholars who have contributed to this work present a comprehensive overview of the first ten years of practice in the area of investment disputes under the NAFTA provision. As in any nascent undertaking, the successes, failures and controversies that have been the experience of the state parties involved in NAFTA, are keenly reflected in the Chapter 11 cases. It is in these experiences, as described by in the chapters of this timely volume, that the readers will find substantive and procedural insights into an emerging new area of public international economic law. Many see the workings of the NAFTA agreement, particularly Chapter 11, as a Rorschach test for how state parties can approach and effectively adjudicate investment disputes. For this reason all practitioners and scholars concerned with international trade and foreign direct investment issues should consult this book.