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ASEAN as Wayang Kulit: A Critique of the Constitutional, Extra-constitutional, and Practical Fetters of ASEAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2019

Jose Duke BAGULAYA
Jose Duke BAGULAYA*
Affiliation:
University of the Philippines Diliman, The [email protected]
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Abstract

International organizations have been described metaphorically as the Frankenstein of international law. They are created by states and yet more often than not they assume powers that humble their creators. This paper presents a different metaphor to describe the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN]. Created in 2007, ASEAN, it is argued, resembles the fettered wayang kulit in Indonesian theatre. It is an international organization which is controlled by its Member States in various ways. This paper analyzes three forms of ASEAN's fetters: constitutional, extra-constitutional, and practical. Constitutional fetters refer to the structural control embedded in the ASEAN Charter. Extra-constitutional fetters refer to rules of procedure that close the openness of the constitutional text. Finally, practical fetters refer to the ways the Member States limit ASEAN's legal personality in practice. Through these control mechanisms, ASEAN has so far acted on the stage of world politics according to the narrative of its puppet masters.

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Articles
Information
Asian Journal of International Law , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 2019 , pp. 275 - 297
Copyright
Copyright © Asian Journal of International Law, 2019 

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Footnotes

*

Assistant Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman. The author has participated in cause-oriented litigation and is presently a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Law. He would like to thank Dr James Fry for reading an early draft of the paper.

References

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2. Wayang kulit is a popular shadow puppet play in Indonesia.

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30. Scholars have argued that international legitimacy has been ASEAN's concern for the constitutionalization of human rights and the dispute settlement mechanism. See infra, note 75. Indeed, as Klabbers pointed out, constitutionalism per se provides a presumption that a “constitutional regime is a legitimate regime”.

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38. Desierto, supra note 4 at 297.

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42. ASEAN Charter, art. 7(2g), supra note 31.

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48. Ibid., art. 11(2d).

49. Ibid., art. 22(2).

50. Ibid., art. 27.

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123. White, supra note 7 at 113.

124. Klabbers, supra note 27 at 42.

125. White, supra note 7 at 114.

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127. Ibid., at 118.

128. ASEAN Charter, art. 3, supra note 31.

129. Ibid., art. 47(7).

130. Rules of Procedure for Conclusion of International Agreements by ASEAN [2011], online: <www.asean.org/storage/images/archive/documents/ROP%20for%20Conclusion%20of%20International%20Agreements%20by%20ASEAN.pdf> [ROPCIA].

131. Ibid., Rule 2.

132. Chen, supra note 58.

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137. ROPCIA, supra note 130, Rule 1.

138. Seah, supra note 134 at 288. This makes ROPCIA an extra-constitutional fetter of ASEAN. The rules attempt to close the openness of the constitutional text.

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147. Ibid., at 86.

148. Ibid., at 131.

149. Venzke and Thio, supra note 96 at 71.

150. Ibid.

151. Ibid.

152. Ibid., at 72.

153. Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area, 27 February 2009, online: ASEAN <www.asean.org/storage/images/2013/economic/afta/AANZFTA/Agreement%20Establishing%20the%20AANZFTA.pdf>.

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155. Agreement on Cultural Cooperation Between the Governments of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Government of the Russian Federation, 20 October 2010, online: ASEAN <www.asean.org/storage/archive/documents/Agreement-on-Cultural-Cooperation.pdf>.

156. I do not intend to have an exhaustive list and analyses of the ASEAN treaties as this has already been done by other scholars. The work of Cremona et al., and Venzke and Thio exhaustively analyze ASEAN treaty practice.

157. Cremona et al., supra note 142 at 86.

158. Ibid.

159. Venzke and Thio, supra note 96 at 31.

160. Ibid.

161. Cremona et al., supra note 142 at 88.

162. Venzke and Thio, supra note 96 at 40.

163. Cremona et al., supra note 142 at 112.

164. Klabbers, supra note 27 at 47.

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167. Ibid.

168. Ibid.