Furnish speaks on 'Dispute Settlement Under NAFTA'

Dale Furnish, Emeritus Professor of Law, recently spoke on "Dispute Settlement Under NAFTA" at a program sponsored by the American Bar Association.

Furnish was one of four speakers at the Dec. 11 program, "Update on the Future of NAFTA," which was organized by the ABA's Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, International Trade and Customs Committee, in cooperation with the ABA International Law Section, Mexican Law Committee.

The program was chaired by Leslie Alan Glick, of Porter Wright Morris & Arthur in Washington, D.C., who is Chair of the International Trade and Customs Law Committee and Vice-Chair of the Mexican Law Committee. Glick spoke on "NAFTA and the Rule of Law: Why it is Working and Making Mexico a Continued Attractive Location for U.S. Investment Compared to China."

The other speakers were: Alfonso Navarro Bernachi, Deputy Consul General of Mexico in Phoenix, who addressed "A Mexican Perspective on NAFTA's Successes," and Rick Stephens, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner, Canadian Consulate of Tucson, who discussed "NAFTA, an Analysis."

Furnish enjoys an international reputation for his work in comparative law and International commercial and trade law, as well as U.S. commercial law. Bilingual in Spanish, he has been invited to teach and speak in every country in South and Central America, and has served as Visiting Professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the University of Sonora, Mexico (UNISON), and on two occasions at the Catholic University of Peru. Furnish was elected a Supernumerary Member of the Mexican Academy of Private International and Comparative Law in 2003, one of only two U.S. jurists so honored to date.

Furnish is a roster member of the United States Panel of Arbitrators for NAFTA Chapter 19 disputes. As a Director of the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade (NLCIFT), he participated in drafting a Model Inter-American Law of Secured Transactions approved by the Organization of American States in 2002, and its correlative Model Regulations for a Secured Transactions Registry approved by the OAS in 2009. He continues to work with the NLCIFT on law reforms that should stimulate more vigorous use of credit, and the growth of commerce and employment to alleviate poverty throughout the Americas and beyond. Specifically, Furnish has worked to reform secured transactions regimes in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Tanzania since his retirement in 2004.

Judy Nichols, Judith.Nichols@asu.edu
(480) 727-7895
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law