Greening NAFTA: The North American Commission for Environmental Co-operation

Greening NAFTA: The North American Commission for Environmental Co-operation, David L. Markell & John H. Knox, eds., Stanford Law & Politics Series; Stanford University Press, 2003, pp. xv, 324.At first blush, the title of this book, Greening NAFTA, would likely be viewed as an oxymoron by most environmentalists. After all, the environmental critiques of free trade including the massive use of fossil fuels in transporting goods around the globe and a “race to the bottom” as it relates to environmental standards, among others, continue to resonate among North American environmentalists. However, once one has tucked into this volume, it becomes clear that the intent of this edited collection is to examine how effective the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation (the NACEC or CEC) has been in its (now) ten years of existence. Its genesis was largely the result of widespread objections made by North American environmental groups and, at the time it was created (1994), it was the first international organization created to address the environmental aspects and issues associated with economic integration. In some respects, a more appropriate title for this edition would have included a question mark after the word NAFTA, because the contributors to this book have very mixed assessments as to whether the CEC has fulfilled its early promise of having a greening effect on NAFTA.