A Study On Dispute Settlement Mechanism In North America Free Trade Area

NAFTA dispute settlement is featured with its multi-sets of mechanisms and its compatibility with other international dispute settlements. Its value on the international dispute settlements, its development in practice and how to comment on it have always been an attractive question. On this ground, this article carries out a comprehensive and systematic analysis and research on the relating matters through theories and methods of empirical analysis and comparative analysis. The whole article can be divided into three parts in general, i.e. overview, main content and its problems in practice and comments on it.The first part is the overview of NAFTA dispute settlement. Setting about the historical background in the first place, the author gives an introduction to the establishment of NAFTA. And then, the author lays much emphasis on research on legal sources of NAFTA dispute settlement. As a matter of fact, the legal sources are consist of three agreements accomplished with fundamental principles of international law, some basic rules from WTO and domestic laws and regulations of the member countries. Thereinto, the North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) contains 4 sets dispute settlement mechanisms. The North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation(NAAEC) and the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation(NAALC) has respectively speculate a set of dispute mechanism. The way of setting up dispute settlementswith respect to different matters is of high pertinency and good for the resolution of disputes. However, there also exists potential procedural conficts for the incoordination between each mechanism.Part Two is research on the main contents of NAFTA dispute settlement,which is arranged in the order of scope of adjustment, institutions and procedural rules. In the first quarter, the adjustment scope being discussed indicates its characteristics of being wide. Not like the traditional dispute settlement, the litigators of NAFTA dispute settlement had made a great deal of break-through, such as bringing into the matters of financial investment,environmental disputes and labor problems and etc. On the research of institutions of NAFTA, the author introduces the fundamental organizations and its functions, and furthermore, draws a conclusion that the institutions of NAFTA are comparatively weakened. The third quarter is key to part two. The author tries to summarize the procedural rules of each mechanism through painstaking textual analysis. The NAFTA dispute settlement consists of 4different sets, which are chapter 11 dispute settlement between foreign investors and governments, chapter 14 dispute settlement of financial matters(which will not go into details in this article for its similarity to chapter 20), chapter 19AD/CVD dispute settlement and chapter 20 general dispute settlement between governments. In the meanwhile, the NAAEC and NAALC establish the environmental dispute settlement and labor dispute settlement respectively.Apart from chapter 14, the rest 5 mechanisms endures their own unique rules of procedure.Of the whole text, the key part is part 3, which conducts research on problems of NAFTA dispute settlement arising from in practice. The author firstly discusses the practical application of these rules through specific cases and the analyze these cases in order to uncover the problems in practice and finally make suggestions with respect to the problems. Hereinafter, the author tries to make comments on NAFTA dispute settlement in the second quarter. It is firstly done by summarizing the characteristics of NAFTA dispute settlement after all the research done before, and then discussing the inadequacy of the whole mechanism and at last making suggestions.The dispute settlement mechanism is organic integration with the pragmatism and doctrine governed by law. Every dispute settlement mechanism sets up the justice procedure of expert panel as well as non-lawsuit procedure such as consultation(except for Chapter 19). Chapter 20 creates two procedures of consultation before expert panel, which indicates the intentions of every government to solve disputes through pragmatic means, such as negotiation, etc.In the international economic organizations made up of the sovereign states, this kind of combination is the inherent request for preserving state sovereignty and securing effective operation of international organization, and as well as a characteristic of international organization made up of developed countries and developing ones too.