President Felipe Calderón signed a much-anticipated reform of Mexico's judicial system, allowing for greater transparency through public trials and presumption of innocence for defendants.
Published by Jorge Pinto Books, the Spanish-language book of the AS/COA Rule of Law Working Group includes new data, graphs and other information updated from the July 2007 English-language version.
During the North American launch of the Vance Center's Pro Bono Declaration for the Americas and the introduction of the Spanish edition of AS/COA's Rule of Law Report, speakers discussed prospects and challenges to judicial reform and to cultivating a culture of pro bono work in Latin America.
In an article for Viewpoints Americas, Jonathan Hamilton, Partner at White & Case LLP, examines the recent trend in some parts of Latin America to reject arbitration for resolving investment disputes. It is unlikely that foes of neutral dispute mechanisms will be able to "put the arbitration genie fully back into a bottle," he writes.
The AS/COA Rule of Law Working Group report focuses on how to improve and strengthen the rule of law in the Americas.
Eduardo Vidal and Gustavo Laborde of the Latin American practice group at Hubbard & Reed LLP, emphasize the importance of democracies committed to equal protection under the law.
This report highlights investment trends over the past two decades and shows some of the reasons why Latin American and Caribbean nations are losing investors to other regions of the world. It also shows how a lack of security directly and indirectly affects investment in the region. The hope is that by addressing these issues, regional governments will begin to recapture an appropriate proportional share of global FDI, thus increasing economic growth and ultimately strengthening democracy and its institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
