The Dog That Did Not Bark: The Mystery of the Missing Dispute Settlement Chapter in NAFTA

Date: April 8, 2013 12:15pm – 01:15pm
Location: Columbia Law School, Jerome Greene Hall, Room 807

Rambod Behboodi, General Counsel and Executive Director, General Legal Services, Department of Finance Canada gave a talk on “The Dog That Did Not Bark: The Mystery of the Missing Dispute Settlement Chapter in NAFTA.”

The principal interstate dispute settlement mechanism of the NAFTA, set out in Chapter 20, has been used sparingly by the Parties. This is in stark contrast to the robust use of WTO dispute settlement by the NAFTA Parties and, indeed, the relative ‘success’ of the investment dispute settlement mechanism of the NAFTA under Chapter 11. Drawing on his experience as a trade litigator and dispute settlement negotiator, Mr. Behboodi, who teaches trade litigation and advocacy at the Faculty of Law, Queen’s University, offered his personal views on the possible underlying causes.