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.
Regional environmental governance: the NAFTA case