Fast Track

English Legal System: Fast Track

In the context of the English law, A Dictionary of Law provides the following legal concept of Fast Track : The track to which a civil case is allocated when the amount claimed exceeds £5000 but is less than £15,000 (See allocation). The fast track provides a streamlined procedure in order to ensure that any legal and other costs remain proportionate to the amount claimed. It achieves this through the use of standard directions by the court, a fixed timetable of about 30 weeks between directions and trial, a trial of one day only, no oral expert evidence to be used in trial, and costs being fixed dependent on the level of advocacy used.

Fast-track in Global Commerce Policy

In this regard, fast-track is: a mechanism, now renamed Trade Promotion Authority, available since the passage of the 1974 United States Trade Act under which Congress can only approve or disapprove in its entirety a regional or multilateral trade package negotiated by USTR. The main conditions are (a) that Congress is informed of the likely outcome of negotiations well before they are concluded to allow for consultations with the Administration, (b) that committees would report on the bill within a short time, and (c) that debate over the bill in both houses would be limited. Some WTO members think that the United States cannot negotiate seriously in multilateral trade negotiations until it has received fast-track authorization. The entries on trade policy are here. In other words, fast-track would remove internal impediments to negotiation. That view may not give the full picture since Congress tends to take a strong interest in all phases of the negotiations and make its views known to the Administration. The entries on trade policy in the Encyclopedia are here. Others see the main benefit of fast-track authority as giving other countries the signal that the United States is ready to negotiate. See also reverse fast-track.[1]

Fast-trackin the wold Encyclopedia

For an introductory overview on international trade policy, see this entry.

Resources

Notes and References

1. Dictionary of Trade Policy, “Fast-track” entry (OAS)

See Also