Friday’s Workshop was held at the headquarters of the Mexican Foreign Ministry, in the historic center of Mexico City.  Two days of Academic sessions began with a discussion of Comparative Legal Education, with an emphasis on the challenges facing Mexican law schools.  The keynote speaker on this subject was Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado, who holds a doctorate in law from Stanford, after having received his undergraduate law degree from NACLE member Universidad Panamericana.  Dr. Pérez Hurtado is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Law Teaching and Learning, known by its acronym in Spanish, CEEAD.  (For more information on CEEAD, see http://www.ceead.org.mx.)  His presentation focused on the dramatic growth in the number of law schools in Mexico, and the challenges which this poses for legal education.  TO VIEW DR. PÉREZ HURTADOS’S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, WITH DATA, PLEASE CLICK HERE . Two distinguished legal educators commented on Dr. Pérez Hurtado’s presentation:  Dr. Héctor Fix Fierro, the Director of UNAM’s Institute of Legal Research, and Dr. José Antonio Caballero, Dean of the CIDE law faculty, who also holds a doctorate from Stanford.  Prof. Laura Spitz, a special guest from U. Colorado, who holds a Canadian law degree and a doctorate in law from Cornell, discussed comparative legal education in Canada and the United States. 

After the plenary session, The Workshop divided into three concurrent sessions. 

The international trade law group program focused on “NAFTA at 15 -- An Assessment of the NAFTA Countries’ Enforcement of, and Compliance with, the Terms of the Agreement”. Featured presenters were Ricardo Ramírez (UNAM), who was recently appointed a judge of the WTO Appellate Body, spoke on NAFTA’s experience with the dispute settlement mechanism of Chapter 19; David Gantz (Arizona), one of the panel members in the notorious NAFTA Trucking Services case, gave a detailed discussion of the aftermath and political realities of that case –TO VIEW PROF. GANTZ’S POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, PLEASE CLICK HERE ; Tony Van Duzer (Ottawa) compared the U.S. and Canadian experiences in state-to-state dispute settlement generally, while Gabriel Cavazos analyzed compliance with NAFTA norms in investment disputes, especially in regard to the fair treatment standard of Article 1105. Laura Spitz (Colorado), a special guest of NACLE, commented on the presentations of Professors Van Duzer and Cavazos, noting the institutional and geopolitical challenges facing the NAFTA parties.  

The intellectual property law group discussed Intellectual Property Law in the Digital Age – Comparative Approaches. Graham Reynolds (Dalhousie) opened the session with a discussion of legal issues involving transformative works; Ricardo Méndez Solís (Panamericana) spoke on the Mexican law relating to legal issues that arise from peer-to-peer file sharing; Heidi Lindner (Panamericana) commented on both presentations. 

The energy law group discussed Climate Change and Energy Transition Policy; Energy Efficiency; and Renewable Energy. Ana Elena Fierro (CIDE) spoke of Mexico’s constitutional basis or for regulating the hydrocarbon industry in Mexico, as well as the barriers that exist for the use of alternative energy sources. Jacqueline Weaver (Houston) spoke on state and federal responses in the United States to building transmission lines linking new renewable sources to population. Miriam Grunstein (CIDE), who organized the session, commented on both presentations.

Following the concurrent sessions, NACLE hosted a luncheon in the Foreign Ministry.  Our luncheon speaker, Guillermo Ordorica (director of U.S. – Mexico Relations in the Mexican Foreign Ministry), was our luncheon speaker.  He spoke on current issues in North American relations, and answered questions from the participants.

The Friday afternoon program featured five outstanding presentations of research papers by the winners of our NACLE student paper competition this year: Raymndo Arenas (Arizona), J. Scott Childs (Houston), Alexandre Mireault (McGill), John Siwiec (Ottawa), Luis Lauro Treviño (ITESM).   Alexandre earned the prize this year for having travelled the farthest to attend the workshop – he is currently an exchange student at the University of Paris, and flew straight from France to Mexico for the workshop.  For more on the student paper competition, please click here.

Saturday’s Workshop featured a plenary session with two outstanding presentations by guest speakers.  Miriam Grunstein invited César Hernández Ochoa, the General Counsel of Mexico’s Commission on International Trade (an inter-ministerial commission dealing with policy issues), to discuss the challenges facing Mexico in attempting to implement policies to slow climate change.  His presentation was very compelling, as he noted the political and socio-economic challenges to meeting the demand for electricity in Mexico.  Heidi Lindner invited Alfredo Tourné, the Director of Protection against Copyright Infringements at the Mexican Copyright Office, gave an outstanding presentation on the enforcement of copyright in Mexico.  Once considered a major transgressor in the enforcement of copyright and trademark protection Mexico has made strides to.

The concluding session of the Workshop on Saturday consisted of the NACLE Business Meeting, which was held in plenary session.  See NACLE business report here.

The Saturday Workshop concluded with a luncheon served in the beautiful gardens of the Universidad Panamericana.  Steve Zamora thanked our Mexico City hosts – CIDE, UNAM – IIJ, and Universidad Panamericana – for having attracted an outstanding group of participants in a beautiful and stimulating environment.