Toward a North American Legal System [Paperback]

Toward a North American Legal System is a collection of scholarship that looks at a timely issue in public policy. Two decades after NAFTA, the team assembled by James T. McHugh works through both philosophical and practical questions related to a possibly more integrated legal system on the North American continent.Assessing the Prospects of North American Legal Harmonization Thinking about Law in North America The European Union as a Comparative Model for North America The Constitutional Systems and Traditions of North America Legal Integration of NAFTA through Supranational Adjudication Beyond Courts: Harmonizing Practice and Principles in North America Through Investor-State Arbitration The Strong Subsidiarity Principle under NAFTA Law and Policy

Like early geographers of the Americas, the contributors to this book have undertaken a formidable challenge: to map a shifting legal terrain that is as intricate and varied as the book's continental scale would suggest. The authors, noted experts in comparative law and/or international relations, make it clear that there is no single North American legal system. To the contrary, unlike our European allies, most 'North Americans' do not subscribe to a continental movement towards homogeneous norms. Nevertheless, as the authors in this book point out in discerning detail, the increasing interdependence of North American societies not only creates contentious fault lines , but also generates opportunities for North America's overlapping legal regimes to interact harmoniously. The book, in dealing with the relatively neglected subject of North American comparative law, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the underlying forces that influence continental shifts in legal regimes. - Stephen Zamora, Leonard B. Rosenberg Professor of Law and director, Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, University of Houston Law Center

ARTHUR COCKFIELD Queens University, Kingston, CanadaMICHELLE EGAN Americl³;