 The North American Environmental Law and Policy series presents some of the most salient recent trends and developments in environmental law and policy in Canada, Mexico and the United States. This volume includes:
Public Access to Government-held Environmental Information – Report on North American Law, Policy and Practice (Second Edition)
This second edition of our report is being released at a time when all three countries are reviewing the ground rules on access to government-held information. In Canada, the 1983 Access to Information Act is undergoing a major reform. In Mexico, federal access to information legislation, briefly described in the Mexico section of this report, came into force on 12 June 2002. In the United States, concern for national security has led to some changes in access-to-information policy. At the same time, in all three countries, environmental laws are being adopted or amended to reflect commitments by governments to foster public participation in decision-making by facilitating access to relevant information.
The Precautionary Principle in North American and International Law
Article 10(6) of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation mandates the Council of the CEC to cooperate with the NAFTA Free Trade Commission in order to achieve the environmental goals and objectives of NAFTA. The CEC Council and the Secretariat’s Environment, Economy and Trade program invested considerable time and effort developing the process by which the Council would undertake its work mandated under Article 10(6). This issue of North American Environmental Law and Policy contains the first two research papers commissioned by the Council as part of its work under Article 10(6). The papers themselves focus on different aspects of the use of precaution in North America. | 
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