THE legal framework for the Caribbean Single Market & Economy (CSME) is among a range of issues being discussed during the American/Caribbean Law Initiative (ACLI) conference which began in Ocho Rios yesterday.

Issues such as trade and globalisation are also on the agenda for the two-day conference which is being held under the theme, "Emerging trends in international and comparative law". It is the first event of this kind to be hosted by the ACLI, a consortium of American and Caribbean Law Schools that was launched in 2000 to facilitate the exchange of information and facilities among the institutions involved.

"We are hoping this will be the beginning of a series of law conferences," said ACLI president John Knechtle at yesterday's opening ceremony, which attracted about 100 participants. "We are excited about this first conference... it is another step in the growth of the ACLI."

The conference is just one of the many ACLI initiatives which have, in the past, included the establishment of a legal advice clinic that serves the Caribbean.

"It is a unique advice clinic in that the governments of the region provide us with actual legal problems which exist and the students at the Caribbean end and the United States end work together... and make a presentation on these problems," ACLI vice-president Keith Sobion told the Observer.

To date, the clinic has provided advice on issues including the 18-18 tie in the Trinidad & Tobago general elections a few years ago, environmental law issues as well as international trade matters.

And while the issues to be discussed at the ongoing conference are a slight departure from the topics normally tackled by the advice clinic, the group feels it is up to the challenge.

"We felt the time was right to have a conference of this nature, seeing that trade issues and globalisation issues are current," said Sobion, who is also principal of the Norman Manley Law School. "We thought we will have the expertise, both of the United States side and the Caribbean side, to address some of those issues."

In addition to discussing the legal framework of the CSME, the conference will also look at the relationship between the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) as well as trade and investment in the Caribbean.

"We really hope to bring the trade issues to the fore to develop a better understanding among teaching professionals and, hopefully, we will then be better able to address the issues among the business community and the student body generally," Sobion said.

At the end of the two-day conference, he added, the papers presented are to be published and made available for general public use.

"Right now there is an American publisher who is interested in doing it (the publishing)... the (Norman Manley) law school here in Jamaica has its own publication, the West Indian Law Journal, and we may, in fact, put some papers into the next issue of that publication," Sobion said.

The next issue of the West Indian Law Journal will be available in October.

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