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The informal trinational alliance of social movements & non-governmental organizations in Canada, Mexico, & the US around international trade matters is analyzed. The evolution of the anti-free trade movement through the Canadian-US Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), & the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) proposal is traced. Within this diverse alliance, working groups of trade unions, women's networks, & others met frequently, while national coalition meetings were less common. While the trinational alliance did not succeed in blocking NAFTA, it did open international trade debate to public scrutiny & strengthen civil society's potential to participate in these debates even as government officials sought to minimize public involvement. The alliance showed that transnational cooperation could serve the ends of intelligence & leverage. The involvement of the trinational alliance in the two Porto Alegre World Social Forums is described, illustrating the longevity of the participating groups & their ability to involve youth. New challenges & new tasks for trinational alliances in the face of FTAA, World Trade Organization initiatives, & aggressive US security & foreign policies are discussed. References. M. Pflum

A novel case has recently arisen involving
the liability of a foreign government to indemnify
an American corporation (a missionary board) for
the death of its employees by mob violence. The
case grew out of the assault in 1905 of a mob of
native Chinese upon the American Protestant
Mission Station at Lienchou, province of Quantung,
China, resulting in the death of four missionaries
and one child.