2014 Annual Report - final 2-24-15 24pg.pub

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LAW CENTER 1

2 0 1 4 A N N U A L R E P O R T

2 CENTER FOR U.S. AND MEXICAN LAW 2014 ANNUAL REPORT


A N N U A L R E P O R T T O T H E A D V I S O R Y B O A R D

2 0 1 4

Tuesday, January 13 , 2015

8:00 A.M.

Restaurante Matisse Polanco, Mexico City

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

5:30 P.M.

Offices of Locke Lord LLP, Chase Tower, 28th floor, Houston, Texas

Cover image: Joel Salcido (Austin, TX) Atotonilco El Alto, 2012/2013, From the series Aliento A Tequila. Inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.


The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law thanks the following companies and firms for their support

U N D E R W R I T E R S

The Buzbee Law Firm

Baker Hughes

Weatherford International

S P O N S O R S

Andrews Kurth

Baker Botts

Chadbourne Parke

Entra Consulting

Gardere Wynne Sewell

Goodrich Riquelme

Haynes & Boone

Holland & Knight

Locke Lord

López Velarde, Heftye y Soria

Mayer Brown

McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore

Norton Rose Fulbright

Sidley Austin

Vinson & Elkins


TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

D I R E C T O R ' S R E P O R T Stephen Zamora, Executive Director

C E N T E R P R O J E C T S : N E W I N I T I A T I V E S ▪ Regulation of Hydrocarbons: An Advanced Training Course for Mexican Professionals ▪ The Rule of Law and Mexico’s Energy Reform ▪ Texas OneGulf Consortium

L O N G T E R M R E S E A R C H P R O J E C T S ▪ Gulf of Mexico Project ▪ Cross-Border Legal Services Project

S T U D E N T P R O G R A M S

M É X I C O B R I E F I N G S A N D OT H E R A C T I V I T I E S V I S I T I N G S C H O L A R S

C E N T E R A P P O I N T M E N T S

C E N T E R L E A D E R S H I P

B E C O M I N G A C E N T E R S P O N S O R O R U N D E R W R I T E R



Stephen Zamora University of Houston Law Center Executive Director, Center for U.S. and Mexican Law Director, North American Consortium on Legal Education (NACLE) [email protected]

To the Underwriters, Sponsors, Advisors, Collaborating Scholars, and Friends of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law

The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, launched in 2012, is in the midst of its third full academic year. This 2014 Annual Report details our activities during the past calendar year, as well as the challenges and opportunities we encounter in fulfilling our mission to contribute to U.S. - Mexico understanding. As the only research center in the United States devoted to the general study of Mexican law and to legal aspects of U.S. - Mexico relations, we continue to engage outstanding lawyers, legal scholars, and other professionals in Mexico and the United States to focus attention on key issues that affect Mexican society and U.S. - Mexico relations.

The Center’s multi-year research projects - Transboundary Hydrocarbon Resources in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and Cross-Border Legal Services (CBLS) - continue to be our most important, and most challenging, activities. The GOM project is nearing completion of its Phase One report, to be distributed in the Spring for wide comment; CBLS continues under a new structure for research that will draw from a new group of Mexican and U.S. advisers, who will add expertise and depth to the project.

Important new initiatives of the Center highlight the collaboration with institutions in Mexico and the United States that is a hallmark of the Center’s modus operandi. As noted below, we have launched an important new feature, by working

with faculty at Mexico City’s ITAM University to provide training programs for Mexican professionals in need of developing the expertise in oil and gas law that will be needed to administer Mexico’s new energy reform. In addition, the Center has joined with the Mexico Center of Rice University’s Baker Institute to commission a study of the challenges that Mexican energy reforms will pose for continued development of the rule of law in Mexico. The study, to be conducted by prominent Mexican experts in law, economics, political science and related fields, will be distributed in the summer of 2015. The

Center has also joined the Texas OneGulf Consortium, a federally funded research program led by the Harte Research Institute of Texas A & M (Corpus Christi) to promote environmental sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico.

University of Houston law students participate prominently in the Center’s programs. Both JD and LLM candi-dates serve as research assistants for the Center’s research projects. In addition, the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law con-

tinues a program that places University of Houston law students as summer legal externs in key Mexican agencies in Mexico City. In 2014, nine UH law students served as legal externs, at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs; at the headquarters of Pemex, the government-owned oil company; and at the National Hydrocarbons Commission, which regulates upstream oil and gas development in Mexico. We will continue to seek ways to involve students in the Center’s programs that build bridges between Mexico and the United States.

We continue to be grateful to all those persons and institutions that have lent support to our efforts to improve U.S. - Mexico understanding. While the University of Houston provides limited administrative support, the Center’s activities depend on the generosity of our sponsors and donors.

We are particularly grateful to the P-21 Foundation, established by Joe Ryan and Yolanda Villarreal Ryan, to support the CBLS Project. We have welcomed new Sponsors in 2014, and we will continue to solicit new sources of funding to build on the Center’s valuable work.

DIRECTOR'S REPORT


NEW INITIATIVES A D V A N C E D T R A I N I N G C O U R S E S I N E N E R G Y L AW F O R M E X I C A N P R O F E S S I O N A L S

Participants of the 2014 November/December Regulation of Hydrocarbons advanced training course in Mexico.

Mexico’s momentous energy reforms have stirred the oil and gas industry in the U.S. and elsewhere, creating great interest and excitement in lucrative opportunities for foreign investment. Overlooked is the need of educating and training Mexican attorneys and other professionals to administer the new system. The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, based in the energy capital of the world and having at its disposal leading experts in energy law and energy regulation, has partnered with ITAM’s Center for Energy and Natural Resources (Centro de Energia y Recursos Naturales) and with the Uni-versity of Houston’s Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Center (EENR) to begin offering training courses for Mexican professionals in private and public sectors pursuing a better understanding of the oil and gas industry, petroleum economics, the energy reform in Mexico, and key subjects of

regulation. The first such course, Regulation of Hydrocarbons: An Ad-vanced Training Course for Mexican Professionals, was held in November 2014 at the Mexico City campus of ITAM University, and was organized by Dr. Josefina Cortés Campos and Paolo Salerno, professors of law from ITAM; Jacqueline Weaver, director of EENR; and Stephen Zamora, director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law. Faculty included profession-als from Wood Mackenzie, a respected advisor in the energy industry, professors from ITAM’s Center for Energy and Natural Resources, and visiting faculty from the University of Houston’s EENR Center. The course, limited to 31 professionals, included 16 lawyers, 9 engineers, 5 economists, two political scientists and one legislator. A majority of the participants were high-level professionals from Pemex, SEMARNAT (Mexico’s environmental agency), and Mexico’s Antitrust Commission, as well as private sector profes-sionals. Evaluations of this four-week, fifty-hour course - the first such course of this nature presented in Mexico - were extremely positive.

The course’s four modules were designed to provide professionals the technical and conceptual elements of economic regulation applied to energy infrastructure; to examine the technical and economic constraints facing the hydrocarbons industry; and to analyze the best international practices in the regulation of hydrocarbons (investment, oil transactions, and contracts). The training also presented the new constitutional and legal framework of the ener-gy sector in Mexico, with an emphasis on hydrocarbons; formulated a diagnos-tic status of the regulation of the hydrocarbons sector in Mexico; and provided an analytical framework applicable to public sector policies.

We expect this collaboration between the Center and ITAM to be a first step in a long-term process of binational education and research initiatives dealing with US-Mexico energy integration.


NEW INITIATIVES (CONTINUED) THE RULE OF LAW AND MEXICO’S ENERGY REFORM: A COLLABORATION WITH THE BAKER INSTITUTE’S MEXICO CENTER

Thunder Horse semi-submersible platform located in the Gulf of Mexico. Courtesy of Andyminicooper, Wikimedia Commons.

Mexico’s legal reforms in the last two decades have been significant, but there is still a broad perception of the need to bolster respect for the necessity for rule of law in Mexican society. The unprecedented opening of Mexico’s energy sector to foreign investment in 2014 will create opportunities, but also will present challenges to Mexico’s adherence to the rule of law in carrying out the reforms.

The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law and the Mexico Center at Rice University's Baker Institute have convened a group of eminent experts to address the specific challenges that will arise in this dynamic new arena as Mexico’s public - and private - sector actors being to operate in a new, competitive environment. Subjects to be addressed include the rule of law and its meaning in Mexican social and political contexts; the importance of rule of law for foreign investment in energy; Mexico’s legislative reform process and its implications for the future of the energy industry in Mexico; the structural design of the Mexican energy sector, both for hydrocarbons and electricity; regulating competition in the energy sector, a previously unchallenged market; transparency and accountability; security issues and challenges of corruption; investor protection; and other key issues.

Carefully selected experts in each area will address the key issues in each subject, in a series of essays that will be published in a white paper to be presented at conferences in both Mexico and the United States, beginning ear-ly fall 2015. Joining the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law and the Baker Institute’s Mexico Center in this project are the Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies, the School of Government and Public Transformation of the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), the Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo A.C. (CIDAC), and the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL).


NEW INITIATIVES (CONTINUED) CENTER JOINS TEXAS ONEGULF CONSORTIUM LEADERSHIP

In April of 2010, the Macondo blowout and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig released oil into the Gulf of Mexico, which continued unabated for three months, producing the largest oil spill in U.S. history. In response, in 2012 the U.S. Congress passed the RESTORE Act, creating a trust fund that, among other things, authorizes the designation of a limited number of “Centers of Excellence” that will be carry out projects designed to protect the health and sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico. We are pleased to announce that the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law has joined with eight other Texas academic partners to form the Texas OneGulf Center of Excellence, which has recently been designated as a Center of Excellence in Texas to administer research funding under the RESTORE Act. Led by the Harte Research Institute of Texas A&M University System (Corpus Christi), the Texas OneGulf Center of Excellence will advance research and observing capabilities to help guide restoration and maintain the health of the Gulf of Mexico and its natural resource-dependent communities.

Texas OneGulf will be physically based at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi, which will work closely with the Consortium in the designation and implementation of projects. The Harte Research Institute has broad experience in generating and disseminating knowledge about the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem and its critical role in the economies of the North American region. The role of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law will be to enlist Law Center faculty and students to contribute to the study of legal and policy issues related to the sustainability of the Gulf of Mexico. Since the Gulf of Mexico is a shared resource, the Center will also identify and enlist collaboration with Mexican institutions that share the goals of the Consortium.

Texas OneGulf will help Texas leaders address issues as diverse as establishing sound policy for coastal wind storm insurance; anticipating disease outbreaks in both humans and animals; assuring water for economic development and the environment; planning for future energy sources; ensuring healthy, sustainable ecosystems, including food sources; and, responding effectively to both manmade and natural disasters like oil spills and hurricanes. Texas OneGulf can be the means to serve these needs by harnessing the best of Texas to the rest of the Gulf and nation through its inimitable multi-disciplinary, science based and solutions driven process.

T E X AS O N E G U L F C O N S O R T I U M L E A D E R S H I P M E M B E R S

▪ Lead Institution: Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies, Texas A&M University (Corpus Christi)

▪ Center for U.S. and Mexican Law at the University of Houston

▪ Center for Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch

▪ Center for Translational Environmental Health Research, Texas A&M Medical Center

▪ Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), Texas A& M University

▪ Gulf of Mexico Coastal Ocean Observing System (GCOOS)

▪ Meadows Center for Water and Environment of Texas State University

▪ Texas A&M University at Galveston

▪ University of Texas Brownsville (Rio Grande Valley)


LONG TERM RESEARCH PROJECTS In 2012, the Center launched two binational research projects, which are being carried out in phases as multi-year projects. We are pleased to present a status report on both projects.

GULF OF MEXICO PROJECT: A BINATIONAL STUDY OF U.S. – MEXICO EXPLORATION OF OFFSHORE TRANSBOUNDARY HYDROCARBONS We have made significant progress towards completing the first phase of our project on U.S. - Mexico transboundary resources in the Gulf of Mexico. The objective of the Gulf of Mexico Hydrocarbon Development Project (GOM Project) is to undertake a comprehensive review of the issues associated with equitable and sustainable develop-ment of offshore hydrocarbon resources in the Gulf of Mexico. We are pleased that the project directors are in the final stages of completing the first phase of this multi-year project, which deals with rights to exploration and production of oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico - resources that are significant to the public interests of both Mexico and the United States. Mexico and the United States have concluded a Transboundary Resources Agreement to deal with basic boundary issues, but the 2012 Agreement left unsettled the specific rules involving exploitation of oil and gas in the Gulf. Scientific evidence shows that oil and gas fields span the maritime borders, raising issues about equitable development between U.S. and Mexican interests. The research paper produced in phase one identifies principles for exploitation of transboundary resources that are under international and domestic law, and recommends viable solu-tions to insure that exploitation of the resources will not generate conflict between the two countries, given the existing differences in regulatory cultures between the two nations. In future phases, this project will explore the potential for U.S - Mexican coordination of operational, safety and environmental policies for offshore hydrocarbon development.

The draft report of the first phase of the Gulf of Mexico project will be submitted to external experts for comment, and then will be widely distributed and published. In addition, the Center will sponsor public seminars in both Mexico and the United States, to discuss the report’s findings, events to disseminate the results of the study that will promote binational cooperation on offshore hydrocarbon policies, and will recommend the most effective steps needed to implement the Transboundary Treaty and to improve energy development and environmental protection in the Gulf of Mexico. A bi-national effort, the GOM Project is led by a U.S. Co-Director, Dr. Richard McLaughlin, and a Mexican Co-Director, Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez, each of whom leads a team of researchers.

P R O J E C T L E A D E R S H I P

Center for U.S. and Mexican Law’s Gulf of Mexico Hydrocarbon Resources Project co-directors, Dr. Richard McLaughlin, and Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez, share their expertise in Mexico and New York.

Richard McLaughlin holds the Endowed Chair for Marine Law and Policy at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A & M – Corpus Christi. In June, 2014, Dr. McLaughlin was an invited speaker at the Sixth Annual Celebration of the Day of the Oceans held in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Dr. McLaughlin’s presentation, entitled “The Future of Transboundary Hydrocarbon Development in the Gulf of Mexico”, examined the legal and policy implications of deep-water drilling near the U.S./Mexico maritime boundary area in the Gulf of Mexico and how these activities will likely be affected by Mexican energy reforms. The event, which included individual presentations and panel discussions by over thirty-five of Mexico’s leading marine scientists, government officials, and military leaders, was sponsored by the Consorcio de Instituciones de Investigación Marina del Golfo de Mexico y del Caribe (CIIMAR), a consortium of academic marine institutions in Mexico that encourages collaborative marine scientific research in the region.

Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez, who leads the project’s Mexico research, is completing his doctorate in law at Harvard University. In October, 2014, was an invited panelist at the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce Energy Reform Conference held in New York City. Garcia Sánchez participated in the panel discussion entitled “New Regulatory Framework and Business Oppor-tunities in the Mexican Energy Sector,” where he spoke about the Center’s GOM project, commenting on how the Agreement Concerning Transboundary Hydrocarbon Reservoirs in the Gulf of Mexico, signed by the U.S. and Mexico in February, 2102, interacts with the newly adopted energy legislation. The event, which included panel discussions by 14 panelists, also discussed business operations under the new energy regulatory framework as well as investments and financing in energy projects in Mexico.

Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez Project Co-Director, Mexico

Dr. Richard McLaughlin Project Co-Director, U.S.A.


LONG TERM RESEARCH PROJECTS (CONTINUED) CROSS-BORDER LEGAL SERVICES PROJECT

The Cross Border Legal Services (CBLS) Project, also launched in 2012, represents the first serious attempt to research the ways in which cross–border legal services are being conducted between U.S. and Mexican lawyers and their clients, and the problems that arise in the provision of such services and the governance of lawyers. The CBLS Project is a joint research initiative of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law and the Centro de Estudios Sobre la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje del Derecho (CEEAD), a Mexican nonprofit research center dedicated to improving the legal profes-sion and legal education in Mexico. Led by Directors Ignacio Pinto-León, Assistant Director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, and Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado, Director of CEEAD, this project is designed to analyze the effects of increased social and economic integration between the United States and Mexico on the delivery of cross-border legal services between the United States and Mexico. Phase One, an exploratory phase, analyzes the status of cross–border legal services (CBLS) between Mexico and the United States; defines what constitutes cross-border legal services between Mexico and the United States; examines the regulatory framework for the practice of law in both countries, including the roles of bar associa-tions and procedures for enforcing professional responsibility; explores the role of foreign legal consultants in the United States in Mexico; and canvasses the reach and limitations of the practice of law by attorneys licensed in each country.

The ground-breaking nature of the CBLS Project has posed challenging obstacles during Phase One of the study. Empirical data and assessments of particular legal practices in both Mexico and the United States are not readily available, as there is no central agency in either country that collects such information. To confront problems in the research design, the Center convened a meeting of experts in May, 2014, to review Phase One’s initial rough draft and to suggest improvements in the design of the project. Dr. Robert Lutz, a distinguished Professor of Interna-tional Law at Southwestern Law School, met with Dr. Alejandro Posadas, a senior scholar at CEEAD, Dr. Amalia Mena-Mora, Affiliate Scholar of the Center, and Professor Ignacio Pinto-León. In the Spring of 2015, the Center will convene a further meeting of experts - including leaders of U.S. and Mexican Bar Associations - to assess the current status of the Phase One research and to enlist the support of potential collaborating agencies in Mexico and the United States.

T H E P - T W E N T Y O N E F O U N D AT I O N The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law has received a second $20,000 grant from the P-Twenty One Foundation, a Houston-based charitable organization established by Houston attorneys Joe Ryan and Yolanda Villarreal Ryan '86.

The grant is specifically to support the Center's Cross Border Legal Services research project examining whether the provision of legal services and the licensing regulations that govern lawyers have kept up with dramatic increases in trade and social interaction between the United States and Mexico. The Center first received a grant from the P-Twenty One Foundation in December, 2012.

From left, Robert Lutz, Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, and Alejandro Posadas, Senior Scholar at Centro de Estudios sobre la Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje del Derecho, A.C. (CEEAD) in Mexico, after meeting with Cross Border Legal Services project directors Ignacio Pinto-León and Amalia Mena in Houston.


STUDENT PROGRAMS SUMMER EXTERNSHIPS IN MEXICO

For more than a decade, the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) has been sending students to Mexico City to work as summer externs as part of a series of Mutual Cooperation Agreements between the school and prestigious Mexican institutions. The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law assists students in participating in this unique program.

During the summer of 2013, eight UH law students immersed themselves in the Mexican culture and externed with the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores or SRE), with Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), and with Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commis-sion (Comisión Nacional de Hidrocarburos, or CNH).

In 2014, after Mexico’s Presidential approval of the secondary laws for the energy reform, our program arranged for nine students, our largest group to date, to work as legal externs at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at the Mexico City headquarters of Pemex and CNH.

Katherine Chapman, a second-year JD candidate, worked under the direct supervision of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Deputy Legal Adviser , Car los Quesnel-Melendez, and was asked to explore how the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) approve, sell, appraise and operate U.S. oil and gas reserves offshore. Chapman’s extensive research was used to create a presentation for a meeting between U.S. and Mexican government officials and the countries’ embassies in preparation of the entering into force of a revolutionary treaty between Mexico and the U.S.

“I could never have dreamed I’d get to work for a foreign government and get to experience the kindness, diligence, professionalism and warmth I was immediately shown. I was given meaningful work and invited to high-level meetings. I was trusted, guided and treated like a special friend,” said Chapman of her experience working at SRE. Jorge Jasso, also a second-year JD student, spent the summer of 2014 externing at SRE.

2013 Summer externs Lauren “Addie” Fisher and Al-brecht Riepen in the office of Ambassador Diener, the Legal Advisor of the Mexican Foreign Ministry. Left to right, counsellors Carlos Quesnel and Gerardo Guerrero (LLM 19); Ambassador Diener; Prof. Stephen Zamora; Addie Fisher and Albrecht Riepen.

UHLC Student Alan Garcia, left, and colleague Sebastian Martinez at the Pemex refinery in Hidalgo, Mexico.


F U T U R E M U T U A L C O O P E R AT I O N A G R E E M E N T W I T H M E X I C O ’ S C N H The Center continues to collaborate with Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH) to finalize a Mutual Cooperation Agreement that will provide opportunities for CNH’s staff attorneys and UHLC law students to receive valuable training.

During the summer of 2014, LLM student Shanisha Smith worked with Legal Advisors to the Commissioners under the direction of Azhanty Jheman, CNH Deputy Director General for Contracts and Tender. Smith was present at the CNH offices when the Mexican President announced the approval of the secondary laws for the energy reform, and researched the legal issues that arose after the secondary legislation was passed. CNH was so impressed with Smith that they have invited to repeat her externship in 2015.

Kyle Doherty, a second-year law student at UH noted: “My experience working for the National Hydrocarbon Commis-sion in Mexico City gave me a special insight into an economy that is on the brink of fundamental changes that go to the heart of Mexico’s history as a nation, and which have huge importance to the American economy. Having an English-speaking student of American law was valuable to the attorneys at CNH. At one point, they asked me to explain the concept of “willful misconduct” in the context of American contract law. At first I thought it was a straightforward question, but the more I delved into it, the more I found that it was actually a thorny issue with marked differences of opinion from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. I wrote at modest length about the disagreement and compared it to the somewhat equivalent Mexican system of tiered culpability.”

UHL students Katherine Chapman, left, and Kyle Doherty sightseeing at Mexico’s pyramids during their 2014 placements in SRE and CNH.

At Pemex, second-year students Alan Garcia and Michael Ventocilla and Foreign LLM student Aura Figuera worked with Olga A. Zorrilla Ruvalcaba, Counsel of the International Legal Department and herself a University of Houston law graduate (LLM). Garcia was assigned to research maritime law and other areas of law, and to write and translate various briefing opinions to assist in the development of the new constitutional amendments to the Mexican Constitution of Hydrocarbons. Through his placement, Garcia also contributed to current cases handled by Pemex’s international affairs legal department. Ventocilla was present at Pemex’s headquarters when the new energy reform in Mexico was being enacted. One of his chief responsibilities was to prepare presentations for foreign investors seeking to participate in cooperative agreements with Pemex. This included explaining the implications of the reform and the new practices that would be implemented to ensure security in investing activities. Garcia and Ventocilla also participated in Pemex’s weekend long office retreat to Huatusco, Veracruz, where they met with Mexican attorneys and other externs to discuss Mexican energy reforms.

At Mexico’s National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), Shanisha Smith, Kyle Doherty, Ariana Guer-rero Hamilton, and Ben Wallen were assigned to the legal department, where they worked on projects related to the historic opening of Mexico’s energy sector to competition and foreign investment. The Center is in the final stages of signing a Mutual Cooperation Agreement with CNH, as noted below.

STUDENT PROGRAMS (CONTINUED) SUMMER EXTERNSHIPS IN MEXICO


MEXICO BRIEFINGS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES PROSPECTS FOR U.S. – MEXICO TRADE Courtesy of the University of Houston Law Center.

Professor Stephen Zamora, right, introduces Professor David A. Gantz at the Mexico Briefing.

David A. Gantz is the Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law and Director of the International Trade and Business Law Program at the University of Arizona. A leading expert and prolific author on international trade law, his career spans private practice, government service, and legal education. He has published seminal texts on regional trade agreements and international trade litigation, and has served as a government-appointed arbitrator in important international disputes.

The Center continues to provide exclusive opportunities for friends of the Center to meet with leading experts on Mexican law and on U.S. - Mexico relations, to engage in private discussions of issues of current importance through its Mexico Briefings speaker series.

On April 21, 2014 the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law and the Mexico Center of Rice University’s Baker Institute co-hosted a Mexico Briefing presentation featuring Professor David Gantz.

Professor Gantz’s talk, “Prospects for U.S. - Mexico Trade: Will the Proposed Free Trade Agreements in the Pacific (TPP) and with Europe (TTIP) Enhance or Undermine the NAFTA Partnership?,” analyzed the trade agreements that the United States, Canada and Mexico are negoti-ating with Pacific Rim countries, and with trading partners in Europe. If adopted, these agreements will offer opportunities for U.S. and Mexican businesses, but they will also complicate our trade relations under NAFTA.

The program took place at the law offices of Andrews Kurth LLP, which generously sponsored this event.

Videos of Prof. Gantz’s lecture, in addition to videos of other Mexico Briefings, are available on the Center’s website at: http://law.uh.edu/mexican-law/briefings/2014-0421.asp


MEXICO BRIEFINGS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES (CONTINUED) “ALIENTO A TEQUILA” PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION Courtesy of the University of Houston Law Center.

As part of Houston’s annual “Cinco de Mayo” festivities, the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law co-hosted a photographic ode to tequila, the land from which it comes, and the people who harvest the blue agave plant to make Mexico’s most renowned beverage.

“Tequila is the elixir that faithfully remains the guardian of Mexico's landscape, tradition and national identity,” photographer Joel Salcido wrote in explaining the exhibit, “Aliento A Tequila” (breath or spirit of tequila). “It is indeed that ancient lord of fire with a savage smile. In this landscape of blue agave, I discovered the traditions of culture and religion, both ancient and modern, indigenous and foreign. Still there, amongst life, is the everyday toil of man, land and sky, unified in purpose to produce a spirit that is only true to the mythic character of Mexico and its people.”

Professor Stephen Zamora, director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, noted that tequila can only be produced in Mexico, and can only be made from the blue agave plants grown in the state of Jalisco, and in limited regions of adjoining Mexican states. “Tequila is a sophisticated drink steeped in a rich cultural history, and Joel Salcido’s photographs display in vivid color the traditions associated with it. We wanted to bring this artwork, and these traditions, to the attention of Houston’s devotees of Mexican culture.” The

exhibit, consisting of 39 photos, was on view at the Wells Fargo Plaza the entire month of May, 2014. A grand opening of the exhibit featured a tequila tasting, compliments of Tequila Don Julio, one of Mexico’s premier tequila distilleries, and a vocal performance by Mexican baritone Octavio Moreno, a member of the Houston Grand Opera artists’ studio, and a virtuoso guitarist as well as accomplished opera singer. The exhibit was co-hosted by the Houston Center for Photography and co-sponsored by Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP, McDermott Will & Emery LLP, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, and Sidley Austin LLP.

Guests, friends and supporters of the Center for US and Mexican Law and Houston Center for Photography celebrated the opening of “Aliento a Tequi-la” on May 1st, 2014. Invited guests, pictured above, review Joel Salcido’s artwork, which included vivid texts describing the rich culture surrounding tequila. Photo taken by Carlos Fernandez.

Mayra Isaias, left, conducted a tequila tasting at the opening of the photo exhibit, “Aliento A Tequila,” with the photographer, Joel Salcido, and Brisa Gossett, executive assistant of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law. Octavio Moreno, an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, performed at the opening reception courtesy of HGO.


VISITING SCHOLARS

(Top row, from left) Professor Stephen Zamora, executive director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, Professor Ignacio Pinto-Léon, assistant director of the Center, Dr. Juan Carlos Marín González , (bottom row) María Guadalupe Gómez Chavarín with Dr. Josefina Cortés Campos.

The Center attracts visiting scholars from the United States, Mexico and other countries, to fulfill its role as a center for the exchange of ideas related to Mexican law and U.S. - Mexican relations. In 2014, the Center welcomed the following scholars.

Dr. Josefina Cortés Campos is a professor of law at Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), in Mexico City. Dr. Cortés’ teaching and research focuses on administrative law, energy law, and economic regulation and public services; she is Director of the Master of Administrative Law and Regulation at ITAM. Dr. Cortés has been instrumental in organizing, teaching, and administering the course Regulation of Hydrocarbons: An Advanced Training Course for Mexican Professionals, launched at the ITAM campus on November, 2014 (see page 6 of this Report).

Dr. Juan Carlos Marín González is a professor of procedural law and civil law at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) and a professor of procedural law at the Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez in Chile. Dr. Marín has served an expert in Chilean civil procedure. Hi research in Mexico focuses in private law, specifically Torts, where he has published numerous academic articles.

Both Professors Cortés and Marín have taken a year of sabbatical from ITAM and will remain at the University of Houston Law Center as Visiting Scholars until fall, 2015.

María Guadalupe Gómez Chavarín, a Mexican lawyer and a graduate student at the Univer-sidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), is an Exchange Visiting Scholar at the University of Houston Law Center. A former prosecutor in the State of Hidalgo, Mexico, she is pursuing a Master of Laws Degree at UNAM, and is conducting a comparative study of U.S. and Mexican criminal procedure and the role of the prosecutor. Professor Sandra Guerra Thompson, a collaborating professor of the University of Houston Law Center, has been assisting Lic. Gómez Chavarín in her studies, and in connecting with criminal prosecutors in Houston.


Affiliate Scholars of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law participate actively in research and educational projects undertaken by the Center. The inclusion of Affiliate Scholars expands the reach of the Center’s programs, and also permits a broad range of viewpoints and expertise in guiding the projects and activities of the Center.

Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez is a Mexican lawyer with exper tise in international law. He obtained a LL.M. in International Law from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 2011, and is completing a doctorate in Law at Harvard Law School. He has replaced Dr. Miriam Grunstein as co-director of Phase One of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law’s Gulf of Mexico Trans-boundary Resources Project, which explores potential areas of regulatory conflict in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dr. Amalia Mena-Mora is a Research Associate at Galer Law Firm, PLLC in Houston Texas and a Lecturer at the University of Houston. Her teaching and research focuses on U.S. and Mexican law and courts, comparative court analysis, subnational governments, and accountability using quantitative methodology.

Professor Lydia Tiede, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston, and an expert on judicial systems and quantitative analysis has also joined the Center as a member of our UH Collaborating Faculty.

CENTER APPOINTMENTS A F F I L I AT E S C H O L A R S & C O L L A B O R AT I N G F A C U L T Y

N O R T H A M E R I C A N C O N S O R T I U M O N L E G A L E D U C AT I O N ( N A C L E ) The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law serves as the administrative headquarters of the North American Consortium on Legal Education (NACLE), a consortium of 13 law schools in Canada, Mexico and the United States. (See www.nacle.org) This year, NACLE presented a workshop entitled “Re-Energizing North America: Pipelines and Policies,” on March 14 and 15, 2014, at the campus of the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver.

NACLE workshops, held every two years, bring together Canadian, Mexican and U.S. law professors and law students in an intensive, two-day dialogue on key North American issues. Through the NACLE Scholar Competition, students from NACLE member institutions competed to win an opportunity to present their written work at the NACLE workshop. A record number of 12 students, each from a different NACLE member school, were selected as winners of their school to present their paper in Vancouver.

From left to right: Isidro Morales, Veronica Bernal (translator), José Gerardo Rodolfo Fernández Noroña, Miriam Grunstein, and Jacqueline Weaver at the NACLE workshop panel discussion entitled, “Integration of the Energy Regula-tory Framework in North America in the Context of the Mexican Constitutional Reform”.


CENTER LEADERSHIP

Ricardo Colmenter Director, Entra Consulting LLC, Houston

Congressman Henry Cuellar U.S. House of Representatives (D -TX, 28th District)

Alberto de la Peña Partner, Haynes and Boone, Dallas

James A. DeMent, Jr. Partner, Baker Botts, Houston

David Gantz Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law, University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, Tucson

Lawrence Hanson LW Hanson and Associates, Houston

Tim Johnson Partner, Locke Lord LLP, Houston

David Lopez Partner, Pulman, Cappuccio & Pullen, San Antonio

William D. Marsh General Counsel, Baker Hughes, Houston

Charles E. Meacham Partner, Gardere Wynne Sewell, Houston

Judge Margaret McKeown United States Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit, San Diego

Ewell E. Murphy, Jr. Former partner, Baker Botts; Distinguished Lecturer, University of Houston Law Center, Houston

Dallas Parker Partner, Mayer Brown LLP, Houston

Judge Josefina Rendón Assoc. Judge, City of Houston Municipal Courts

Doris Rodriguez Partner, Andrews Kurth, Houston

Judge Lee Rosenthal United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, Houston

Steven Selsberg Partner, Sidley Austin, Houston

Natalia G. Shehadeh Interim General Counsel, Weatherford, Houston

Carlos Soltero Partner, McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore, Austin

Peter K. Taaffe Of Counsel, The Buzbee Law Firm, Houston

Judge Vaughn Walker United States District Court (retired), Northern District of California, San Francisco

William Wood Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright, Houston

Cecilia Azar Founding Partner, Paramo y Azar Abogados, México City

Dr. Gabriel Cavazos Villanueva Associate Dean of the School of Business, Social Sciences and Humanities of the Tecnológico de Monterrey (Campus Monterrey), Monterrey

Dra. Josefina Cortés Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), México City

Dr. José Ramón Cossío Díaz Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court, and Distinguished Jurist in Residence, University of Houston Law Center

Arturo Dáger General Counsel, ProMéxico, Mexico

M E X I C A N A D V I S O R S Dr. David Enríquez Goodrich Riquelme y Asociados and ITAM law school, México City

Dr. Héctor Fix Fierro Research Fellow, Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México City

Ambassador Miguel Ángel González Félix Despacho Maney & Gonzalez Félix, Houston, TX - Mexico City

Alejandro Landa Thierry Partner, Holland & Knight, México City

Dr. Sergio López Ayllón Chancellor (Director General) of México 's Centro de Investigación y Docencia Economicas (CIDE), México City

Rogelio López Velarde Founding partner, López Velarde, Heftye y Soria, México City

Cristina Massa Of Counsel, Gonzalez Calvillo, México City

Dr. Luis Fernando Pérez Hurtado Founding Director, Centro de Estudios Sobre la Enseñanza y Aprendizaje de Derecho (CEEAD), Monterrey

Dr. Luis Rubio President, Centro de Investigación para el Desarrollo, Asociación Civil (CIDAC), México City

Dr. Diego Valadés Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), México City

U . S . A D V I S O R S


Dr. Alberto Abad Suárez Avila Researcher at Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (IIJ-UNAM) in Mexico City

Guillermo J. Garcia Sánchez S.J.D. Candidate, Harvard Law School LL.M. in International Law

Dr. José Ramón Cossío Díaz Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court and Distinguished Jurist in Residence, University of Houston Law Center

Dr. Richard McLaughlin Endowed Chair for Marine Policy and Law at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of México Studies (HRI) at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi

Ignacio Pinto-Léon Assistant Director, Center for US and Mexican Law Director, JurisMex Corp.

Stephen Zamora Executive Director, Center for US and Mexican Law University of Houston Law Center

Dr. Robert E. Lutz Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles

D I R E C T O R S

A F F I L I AT E S C H O L A R S

Dr. Amalia Mena-Mora Research Associate at Galer Law Firm, PLLC in Houston Texas and a Lecturer at the Universi-ty of Houston

CENTER LEADERSHIP (CONTINUED)


Michael Olivas William B. Bates Distinguished Chair in Law Director, Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, University of Houston Law Center

Jacqueline L. Weaver A.A. White Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center

Geoffrey A. Hoffman Clinical Associate Professor and Faculty Supervisor of the University of Houston Immigration Clinic

Sandra Guerra Thompson University of Houston Law Foundation Professor of Law Director, Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center

Dr. Jerónimo Cortina Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Houston and Research Associate, Center for Public Policy

Dr. Susan Kellogg Director, Latin American Studies Program at the University of Houston Professor, University of Houston

Dr. Lydia Brashear Tiede Associate Professor Department of Political Science University of Houston

L AW F A C U L T Y

C O L L A B O R AT I N G F A C U L T Y


B E C O M I N G A C E N T E R S P O N S O R O R U N D E R W R I T E R

The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, located at the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) - one of the leading urban, public law schools in the country - is the first research center in any U.S. law school devoted to the independent, critical study of Mexican law and of the legal aspects of U.S. - Mexico relations.

The Center’s research programs are directed toward increasing the understanding of Mexican laws and legal institutions in the United States, and understanding of U.S. laws and legal institutions in Mexico.

Sponsors and Underwriters of the Center not only are investing in the future of legal education and research at one of the nation’s leading urban law schools, but they are ensuring the future excellence of the University of Houston Law Center and the legal profession, by helping to capitalize on Houston’s position as a gateway between the United States and Mexico.

To learn more about how you can support the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law, contact Executive Director, Stephen Zamora at [email protected].


The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university and an EEO/ AA institution.

C E N T E R F O R U . S . A N D M E X I C A N L AW

University of Houston Law Center 100 Law Center, TU2 Room 201

Houston, Texas 77204-6060 U.S.A.

Main: (713) 743-2126

Email: [email protected]

www.law.uh.edu/mexican-law


W W W . L AW . U H . E D U / M E X I C A N - L AW

2014 Annual Report - final 2-24-15 24pg.pub

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