This seminar will discuss how the creation of dispute settlement mechanisms in NAFTA mainly responded to the interests of the North American national governments, not foreign investors (as it is widely assumed), in delivering an institutional and legal framework that would ease and increase the flows of trade and investment capital between their countries without compromising their sovereignty and policy-making powers. It will examine how these mechanisms and bodies have consistently favoured the actions and largely held up the decisions and policies of national and subnational governments in the three North American countries over the claims of foreign investors.