NAFTA: The institutionalisation of economic openness and the configuration of Mexican geo-economic spaces

Since the second part of the 1980s, and with the negotiation and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico's growth-and industry-orientated policies have shifted from the realm of public policy to a market-driven domain. This paper suggests that economic openness and the empowerment of market actors is provoking a new regionalisation of Mexico's core economic activities that will play a crucial role in the coming century. For Mexico, the core of NAFTA, so to speak, encompasses a cross-border territoriality covering two key southern American states: Texas and California, and key Mexican states located from the border to the Central plateau of the country. I also argue in this paper that Mexico's changing economic territoriality, triggered by the dominance of the outward-looking economic model, is exacerbating regional inequalities that prevailed in the country even before the outset of economic reforms. This is mainly the case of Mexico's southern region, still very agriculture-orientated, and with a deficit of those export-orientated industries currently fuelling economic growth. This region is the least endowed with mobile assets-such as technology, capital, knowledge-in order to exploit the opportunities of market-orientated policies. Consequently, social cohesion is at stake, not necessarily provoked by the market, but exacerbated by it, and the market mechanism cannot by itself address this problem.     

Equality before the Law and Precedent

The paper explores the nature of the principle of equality before the law, understood as the formal justice criterion that like cases must be treated alike, as a rationale of the rule or system of precedent. The first part discusses and rejects Kelsen's thesis on the conceptual insignificance of that principle in the sphere of the application of the law, identified uniquely with a logical criterion related to generality of rules and simple legality. The second part argues for the ethical relevance of equality before the law as a reason for a legal system to have a rule of defeasibly binding precedent.     

Biotechnology and society in the new century]

The developments and applications in human biotechnology make us face deep social dilemmas, social and ethical, that are associated to the possibility of altering our evolutionary and cultural development, thereby renouncing to the principle of Humanity. From a sociological perspective, this text reflects on this matters taking into account how its past and present has shaped a specific operational matrix that is projected towards the future. We shall offer all the public perceptions held on their possibilities in Spain and in the European nations as every advance in scientific and technological matters must take into account the opinion of the citizenry. Finally, there are some final reflections that rather than close the debate leave some questions unanswered. The future should be constructed through dialogue and consensus in a matter of such importance.     

Contending Tradeoffs: IRCA, Immigrants, and the Southern California Restaurant Industry

The impact of immigrant labor in the Service sector is best understood by focusing on the organization of production within firms and its effect on employer demand for labor. This analysis of the San Diego restaurant industry identifies a two tier occupational structure, where employers have selectively recruited undocumented immigrants to fill back-house positions. Conversely, the target hiring of the U.S.-born for visible front-house positions completes the cost-effective symmetry which has allowed this industry to flourish. Although the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) threatens this arrangement, its policy effectiveness remains extremely problematic.