The creation of the NAFTA and the negotiation of the FTAA are profoundly important political and economic developments for the United States, just as the creation of the European Economic Community and the widening of the European Union are profoundly important political and economic developments on the other side of the Atlantic. Yet the logic of the western hemispheric integration process is not the logic of the European integration process. The historical situation of Europe is extraordinarily complex. Interstate violence played a central role in the creation and evolution of the European Union. The need for rapid post-World War II economic rebuilding of European industry and agriculture overshadowed purely national concerns and helped to overcome historical rivalries among the Member States and their citizens. The postwar threat of the Soviet empire provided a basis for Western European political cohesion that, in retrospect, may have been only dimly understood. Though the European Union is now struggling to find direction, there remains strong consensus that the core function of the Union in preserving European peace and security should remain intact. If there is a logic to the western hemispheric integration process, it is a different logic than the logic of Europe. Interstate violence has played a very limited historical role among the nations of the western hemisphere. Internal strife, on the other hand, has plagued many nations of Latin America. Low rates of economic growth throughout the four decades following the Second World War worked great economic and social hardship. The promise of more rapid economic growth impelled a recent change in government attitudes towards trade and investment and paved the way for the FTAA negotiations. The first draft of this article was prepared in early 1995 immediately following the Mexican peso crisis and was presented as part of a lecture series at U.C. Berkeley School of Law. The thesis of that draft was (1) that there was a net positive social welfare value to the NAFTA; (2) that there was a lack of political support for a socially progressive NAFTA in the United States that gave rise to doubts concerning its viability; and (3) that analytical tools developed by political and social scientists might assist public policy planners in the United States to address the underlying lack of support that threatened the NAFTA enterprise. Over the past two years the immediacy of the peso crisis has faded. The NAFTA increasingly appears as a component of a broader long-term hemispheric picture that is slowly coming into focus. For this reason, the focus of the article has changed. This article is now directed to the steps that should be taken to build a foundation for the longer-term enterprise of western hemispheric integration. The article begins by reviewing the work of political and social scientists who have stressed that international and regional institution-building require the self-interest and support of key actors and interest groups involved in the process. The success of a regional integration effort may well depend on the presence of a sufficient confluence of self-interests among key actors and interest groups throughout economically important countries in a region. This article concentrates as a starting point on United States interest groups and political actors and considers whether these key actors and interest groups have a self-interest in the success of hemispheric integration. It suggests some ways that domestic support for the future western hemispheric integration process may be enhanced. Ultimately, the process of building the FTAA will not be successful simply because it is supported in the United States, even though it will certainly fail from a lack of U.S. support. The building of a regional integration arrangement requires support from throughout a region. There remains ahead the very large task of identifying the key actors and interest groups throughout the nations of the prospective FTAA and their self-interests in the integration process. Western hemispheric economic integration can be undertaken in a socially responsible manner that will result in a net positive social welfare value for the people of the United States and the western hemisphere as a whole. The essential questions that must be addressed in the process of institution building concern the shape of the process: who will benefit and what will be its impact on the overall quality of life in the region? It certainly is not enough that a regional integration arrangement be built; an arrangement that promotes the social welfare interests of the people of this hemisphere must be built.

Exploring the intersection of international law and world politics from the viewpoints of the two disciplines.

Seeking to re-imagine the meaning and significance of the international border, Opening the Floodgates makes a case for eliminating the border as a legal construct that impedes the movement of people into this country. Open migration policies deserve fuller analysis, as evidenced by President Barack Obama’s pledge to make immigration reform a priority. Kevin R. Johnson offers an alternative vision of how U.S. borders might be reconfigured, grounded in moral, economic, and policy arguments for open borders. Importantly, liberalizing migration through an open borders policy would recognize that the enforcement of closed borders cannot stifle the strong, perhaps irresistible, economic, social, and political pressures that fuel international migration. Controversially, Johnson suggests that open borders are entirely consistent with efforts to prevent terrorism that have dominated immigration enforcement since the events of September 11, 2001. More liberal migration, he suggests, would allow for full attention to be paid to the true dangers to public safety and national security.

The processes of legal and economic integration at a regional and global scale have created powerful legal and economic dilemmas. They challenge the paradigms of constitutionalism,including the State's monopoly of constitutionalism, the autonomy of national political communities and the traditional forms of participation and representation. The phenomena of globalisation and regional forms of governance have promoted the inter-dependence of national political communities and destroyed the artificial boundaries upon which national constitutional democracies are found and from which they derive their legitimacy. Furthermore, it is inevitable that the development of international trade and economic integration will raise claims for some form of global distributive justice to complement the wealth maximisation arising from free trade. This will come from the gradual development of global forms of political discourse and law–making, challenging State constitutionalism and requiring some of the instruments and theories of constitutionalism. The essays in this collection, written by leading scholars in international trade law, argue the pros and cons of greater regional and global regulation. They conclude that whatever the final framework for international trade, the critical decisions about institutional form and content will be decided in an emerging global political arena. They help to identify this political arena, who governs it, and according to which rules, and identify the different institutional alternatives in that global political arena.

Much has been written about globalization as an economic and political concept. The academic debate looks forward for explanations about the historical roots and development of this emerging phenomenon where the Nation-State’s evolved into a system where nations are ruled by the dynamics of global interdependence. Globalization in the new era is characterized as a process where geographical, political and cultural borders tend to dissolve. The Westphalia notion of sovereignty capitulates against the principle of political subordination as integration of local power ensuring national legitimacy.

What are the challenges to the prevention of transnational bribery by multinational corporations in international business transactions? This book examines two particular constraints operating on the regulation of transnational corruption in general and bribery in particular. Firstly, it explores the limits of international cooperation in the regulation of transnational corruption and highlights the disparities between the capacities of individual states to pursue adequate regulation. It also considers the role and progress of international bodies such as the OEDC and the response of selected domestic legal systems in tackling the problem. Secondly, the book examines the liability regime for corporations and again, highlights an unexpected shortcoming of multilateral policy in the administration and enforcement of international agreements. The book will be of value both to students and researchers with an interest in the regulation of transnational corruption as well as policy-makers and practitioners working in this area.