Research Library

This paper tracks a change in the direction of Mexico’s energy policy under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — a change that inhibits private investment while attempting to restore Pemex’s oil monopoly.

The author analyzes the challenges Mexico’s 2013 energy reforms pose to the current administration, as well as the limitations the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement imposes on changes in Mexico’s energy policies.

The author reviews the evolution of labor and environmental rights in U.S. free trade agreements and evaluates such provisions in the USMCA.

The author examines provisions in the USMCA for resolving investor and trade disputes among the three North American countries party to the agreement.

According to the authors, developments in cannabis law, arbitration clause interpretation and the economic loss doctrine show that numerous facets of business litigation are changing rapidly.

If the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) is approved, this modified and modernized version of NAFTA will govern most economic relationships in North America. David A. Gantz, the Will Clayton Fellow in Trade and International Economics, reviews the USMCA and discusses its positive and negative elements.

The author explores consociational democracy as it has played out in Lebanon, and its possible use as a heuristic tool to rethink the relationship between communal groups, political organizations, and the state in the contemporary Middle East.

This brief quantifies the potential exposure of key European countries to Russian gas price and supply manipulation, shows how Moscow has used energy as an instrument of coercive diplomacy since the early 1990s, and briefly assesses the impacts and future policy implications of Russian entities’ past use of the “energy weapon” in and near Europe. Although it has not been widely successful to date in the former Soviet zone, Russia's use of the energy weapon against Western European countries in various forms still constitutes a strategic threat that warrants close attention from policymakers in Washington and throughout Europe, writes fellow Gabriel Collins.

The energy reform in Mexico has implemented far-reaching changes in the political, economic, and legal spheres of the country. Any process whereby an industry is opened to private investment investment gives rise to the possibility of disputes that need to be settled within an environment of legal certainty. International arbitration in general, and investment arbitration in particular, are tools that serve both the investor and the state to properly resolve disputes that arise in the energy sector. However, the author argues that a balance must be sought between the legitimate interests and expectations of an investor and the public policy interests of the state, particularly whenever a sector as significant as energy is concerned.

The author discusses the history of socio-environmental conflict in Mexico, the potential emergence of such conflicts in urban and rural areas in the future due to the energy reform, and the role the judicial branch may play in resolving socio-environmental challenges.