The Limits of Free Trade: Sovereignty, Environmental Protection, and NAFTA

MICHAEL W. DUNLEAVY

ABSTRACT

A tension exists between the ongoing drive toward free trade in the world economy and the principle of state sovereignty. As pressures to remove trade barriers increase, domestic law-making abilities are compromised. This article discusses the trade-sovereignty conflict, using domestic environmental concerns as a framework for discussion and using the North American Free Trade Agreement as a specific example of the problem. The nature of the interaction between trade and sovereignty is surveyed from theoretical and historical perspectives and some permutations of the clash between trade imperatives and sovereign choices, as embodied by environmental protection goals, are illustrated in both hypothetical and real-world scenarios. The potential for such a clash between trade and environment in NAFTA is examined. Various approaches to the resolution of conflicts between the goals of free trade and those of environmental protection are surveyed, including dispute resolution and harmonization, and there is discussion of the applicability of these approaches in NAFTA.

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Citation: (1993) 51(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 204.
Copyright © 1993. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review.
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