UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Could a trade agreement strengthen the enforcement of domestic environmental laws? Envisioning the impacts of the US–Peru environmental submissions mechanism

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1111/reel.12500

Authors

Pablo Peña

Reported year

2023

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.841195+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.841195+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú · University of Oxford

Reported affiliation countries

GB · PE

Documentary abstract — original language

Abstract Could a trade agreement strengthen the enforcement of domestic environmental laws? This article explores this question in the context of the US–Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA). The article examines, in particular, the potential role of the Secretariat for Submissions on Environmental Enforcement Matters (SEEM) of the TPA. The SEEM is an advisory mechanism to the parties to the TPA which allows citizens to bring direct submissions. This article considers the extent to which the SEEM can facilitate the enforcement of domestic Peruvian environmental law thus helping secure Peruvians' constitutional right to a healthy environment. Existing domestic mechanisms of administrative, civil or criminal law are already available to Peruvian citizens. These can apply to varied situations and provide a range of remedies, but often, they are also costly and lengthy. The SEEM began operating in 2018, and its first six submissions already hint at its potential to become a useful complement to domestic legal avenues. The SEEM could become increasingly used in the future due to Peru's prevalent institutional problems and its interest in maintaining good commercial relations with the United States. The mechanism also has the potential to provide a way to address the autonomous actions of the Peruvian Congress or its subnational governments that sometimes act in defiance of the environmental laws and regulations enforced by the executive branch of the national government. Importantly, however, citizens need to be aware of the limitations of the SEEM as a non‐adjudicatory mechanism and the fact that it is not a policymaking forum. Future research on the SEEM could provide a better understanding of how the process of increasingly mainstreaming the environment in international trade law is beginning to have concrete effects.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1111/reel.12500

OPENALEX

W4365514880

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

PE

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1111/reel.12500
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W4365514880

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2623901880 · CITES
• openalex:w2915655256 · CITES
• openalex:w4238955818 · CITES
• openalex:w4246579878 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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