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  3. Integration through Law The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), comprising the ten member states of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, has undertaken intensified integration into the ASEAN Community through the Rule of Law and Institutions in its 2007 Charter. This innovative book series evaluates the community-building processes of ASEAN to date and offers a conceptual and policy toolkit for broader Asian thinking and planning of different legal and institutional models of economic and political regional integration in the region. Participating scholars have been divided up into six separate thematic strands. The books combine a mix of Asian and Western scholars. The NUS Centre for International Law (CIL) promotes international law in the Asia-Pacific, wherein ASEAN Law and Policy is one of CIL’s core areas.

  • Series Editors: J. H. H. Weiler, New York University, Hsien-Li Tan, National University of Singapore

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19 results in Integration through Law The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration

Investing the ASEAN Way
  • Theories and Practices of Economic Integration in Southeast Asia
  • Sungjoon Cho, Jürgen Kurtz
  • Published online:
    10 November 2022
    Print publication:
    24 November 2022
  • In recent decades, South East Asia has become one of the world's most popular destinations for foreign investment. The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have employed varying modalities to pursue first security and then economic cooperation. This book explores regional law and governance in ASEAN through the lens of its regulation of foreign investment. It adopts a new framework to identify the unique ontological autonomy of the ASEAN Investment Regime beyond a simple aggregation of its individual member states. It deploys a sociology-led approach (especially constructivism) and emphasizes ideational factors (such as culture and norms) that guide state actions from within. The book explores the manner in which ASEAN's history and culture have fundamentally shaped its foreign investment policies, leading to outcomes that often depart fundamentally from the external structure and script of Global Investment Law.

ASEAN Consumer Law Harmonisation and Cooperation
  • Achievements and Challenges
  • Luke Nottage, Justin Malbon, Jeannie Paterson, Caron Beaton-Wells
  • Published online:
    24 August 2019
    Print publication:
    19 September 2019
  • This is the first Western-language research monograph detailing significant developments in consumer law and policy across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), underpinned by a growing middle class and implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community from 2016. Eight chapters examine consumer law topics within ASEAN member states (such as product safety and consumer contracts) and across them (financial and health services), as well as the interface with competition law and the nature of ASEAN as a unique and evolving international organisation. The authors include insights from extensive fieldwork, partly through consultancies for the ASEAN Secretariat, to provide a reliable, contextual and up-to-date analysis of consumer law and policy development across the region. The volume also draws on and contributes to theories of law and development in multiple fields, including comparative law, political economy and regional studies.

Services Trade in ASEAN
  • The Road Taken and the Journey Ahead
  • Dora Neo, Pierre Sauvé, Imola Streho
  • Published online:
    21 June 2019
    Print publication:
    20 June 2019
  • The member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) set themselves the ambitious aim of establishing a region-wide economic community by 2015, and to deepen it in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Blueprint 2025. To achieve these goals, service sector reforms will occupy a central place in ASEAN's policy pantheon. This can be attributed to both ASEAN's integration process and its deepening ties within a dense layer of external economic partners. This book takes stock of the experience of ASEAN member states in pursuing trade and investment liberalization in services. It identifies key challenges that the regional grouping can be expected to encounter in realizing its AEC Blueprint 2025 aims. Using a law and economics lens, the book assesses where ASEAN is and is headed in services trade, situating it alongside efforts at crafting a European single market for services.

The Legal Authority of ASEAN as a Security Institution
  • Hitoshi Nasu, Rob McLaughlin, Donald R. Rothwell, See Seng Tan
  • Published online:
    11 April 2019
    Print publication:
    25 April 2019
  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has achieved deeper regional market integration to lay a socio-economic foundation for the development of a regional community, yet inter-state trust is by no means assured as Southeast Asian nations remain steadfast in maintaining their political regime stability against external interference. However, through its institutional practices, ASEAN has emerged as a distinct model of security institution, while the region's contemporary security landscape has diversified with various non-traditional security issues. By looking beyond the veneer of diplomacy and prevailing political circumstances, this book examines the legal nature and form of ASEAN's authority to address diverse regional security issues. It provides a fresh perspective on ASEAN's role as a security institution. With an interdisciplinary analysis, this book reveals the normative role that ASEAN plays in facilitating the processes of norm development, localisation and internalisation as it deals with contemporary security challenges confronting Southeast Asia.

Can ASEAN Take Human Rights Seriously?
  • Alison Duxbury, Hsien-Li Tan
  • Published online:
    21 March 2019
    Print publication:
    28 March 2019
  • The adoption of the ASEAN Charter in 2007 represented a watershed moment in the organisation's history - for the first time the member states explicitly included principles of human rights and democracy in a binding regional agreement. Since then, developments in the region have included the creation of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights in 2009 and the adoption of the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration in 2012. Despite these advances, many commentators ask whether ASEAN can take human rights seriously. The authors explore this question by comprehensively examining the new ASEAN human rights mechanisms in the context of existing national and international human rights institutions. This book places these regional mechanisms and commitments to human rights within the framework of the political and legal development of ASEAN and its member states and considers the way in which ASEAN could strengthen its new institutions to better promote and protect human rights.

Comparative Regional Integration
  • Governance and Legal Models
  • Carlos Closa, Lorenzo Casini
  • With Omri Sender
  • Published online:
    05 August 2016
    Print publication:
    08 September 2016
  • Comparative Regional Integration: Governance and Legal Models is a groundbreaking comparative study on regional or supranational integration through international and regional organizations. It provides the first comprehensive and empirically based analysis of governance systems by drawing on an original sample of 87 regional and international organizations. The authors explain how and why different organizations select specific governance processes and institutional choices, and outline which legal instruments - regulatory, organizational or procedural - are adopted to achieve integration. They reveal how different objectives influence institutional design and the integration model, for example a free trade area could insist on supremacy and refrain from adopting instruments for indirect rule, while a political union would rather engage with all available techniques. This ambitious work merges different backgrounds and disciplines to provide researchers and practitioners with a unique toolbox of institutional processes and legal mechanisms, and a classification of different models of regional and international integration.

The Internal Effects of ASEAN External Relations
  • Ingo Venzke, Li-ann Thio
  • Published online:
    05 July 2016
    Print publication:
    11 August 2016
  • Starting with a typology of ASEAN external agreements, the authors go on to provide an original reading of plurilateral agreements as 'joint' agreements. The book then offers both a clarification of the effects - direct or indirect - of external agreements within the legal orders of ASEAN Member States, and an explanation of the effects of external agreements within the legal regime of ASEAN. The authors conclude with a discussion of the role of ASEAN centrality and the role of the secretariat in shaping it.

ASEAN Environmental Legal Integration
  • Sustainable Goals?
  • Koh Kheng-Lian, Nicholas A. Robinson, Lye Lin-Heng
  • Published online:
    05 April 2016
    Print publication:
    08 April 2016
  • While the environmental performance of most ASEAN member states is above the world average, ASEAN nations will continue to face growing environmental challenges due to pressures exerted on them such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization. The authors of this book look at how the member states of ASEAN employ law as a means of regional integration within the context of environmental conservation. While the goal of new laws is to implement sustainable development, it continues to be an ongoing adaptive process, since clear and immediate answers to environmental challenges are rarely available. Readers of this book will gain a clear idea of the evolving cooperation for sustainability within ASEAN at regional and global levels, and the areas of focus for the future. The book will be of interest to policy and decision makers, as well as environmental organizations and academics in the field.

Promoting Compliance
  • The Role of Dispute Settlement and Monitoring Mechanisms in ASEAN Instruments
  • Robert Beckman, Leonardo Bernard, Hao Duy Phan, Tan Hsien-Li, Ranyta Yusran
  • Published online:
    05 March 2016
    Print publication:
    19 May 2016
  • The reputation and achievement of the ASEAN Community hinges on compliance. This seminal book discusses whether ASEAN's faith in dispute settlement and monitoring mechanisms as a means to better compliance is justified and delves into the extent to which they can facilitate ASEAN Community building. It provides the first comprehensive and systematic analysis of ASEAN's compliance with its instruments, and enables readers to see ASEAN as an organisation increasingly based on law and institutions. Readers will also learn how ASEAN balances a thin line between law and institutions on the one hand and diplomacy and realism on the other. Scholars of adjudicatory mechanisms will find this book a fascinating addition to the literature available, and it will serve as a 'go-to' reference for ASEAN state agencies. The book will also interest academics and practitioners working on comparative and cross-disciplinary studies of dispute settlement, monitoring mechanisms, compliance, and international and regional organisations.

The ASEAN Economic Community
  • A Conceptual Approach
  • Jacques Pelkmans
  • Published online:
    05 March 2016
    Print publication:
    11 March 2016
  • The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has experienced rapid economic growth for many years. Although the population of ASEAN is larger than the EU-28, the emerging ASEAN market, called the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), is still little understood by policy makers in many parts of the world, by business professionals and students, as well as by scholars in economics, business, politics and economic law. This book provides, for the first time, a rigorous analytical approach of the new AEC and its intricacies. It sets out its ambition, scrutinises its economic integration logic and detects its deficits. Besides a detailed analysis of the AEC Roadmap, the book also elaborates on its achievements. Several strategic economic options for the AEC, in particular as an instrument to accelerate the economic development of the region, are explored.

The Role of the Public Bureaucracy in Policy Implementation in Five ASEAN Countries
  • Edited by Jon S. T. Quah
  • Published online:
    05 February 2016
    Print publication:
    12 February 2016
  • This pioneering book addresses an important gap in the literature by comparing the role of the public bureaucracies in policy implementation in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. It highlights the importance of the policy context, especially the commitment of the government in allocating the necessary resources and the support of the implementers, as well as the public bureaucracy's effectiveness, as the critical factors responsible for effective policy implementation. The comparative analysis shows that the public bureaucracies in Singapore and Malaysia are more effective in policy implementation than their counterparts in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam because of their favourable policy contexts and higher level of organizational effectiveness. The focus on policy context and the public bureaucracy's role in the policy-making process and its implementation of two ASEAN policies will be of interest to policymakers, civil servants, scholars and students concerned with enhancing policy implementation in the ASEAN countries.

The Foundation of the ASEAN Economic Community
  • An Institutional and Legal Profile
  • Stefano Inama, Edmund W. Sim
  • Published online:
    05 May 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • ASEAN has undertaken the complex task of creating a single economic entity for Southeast Asia by 2015 in the form of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), but without regulators or supranational institutions, its implementation has been an inconsistent process. Through comparisons with the EU and NAFTA, this book illustrates the shortcomings of the current system, enabling readers to understand both the potential of regional economic development in ASEAN and its foundational and institutional deficiencies. The authors' analysis of trade in goods and services, investment, and dispute resolution in the AEC indicates that without strong regional institutions, strong dispute resolution or a set of norms, full and effective implementation of the AEC is unlikely to result. The book offers clear solutions for the ASEAN institutions to help the AEC reach its full potential. Written by two leading practitioners, this insightful book will interest policymakers, students and researchers.

ASEAN Economic Cooperation and Integration
  • Progress, Challenges and Future Directions
  • Siow Yue Chia, Michael G. Plummer
  • Published online:
    05 May 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • ASEAN economic cooperation and integration have come a long way since the organisation's early days, when cooperation was more political and diplomatic than economic in nature. ASEAN now constitutes the most ambitious organisation of regional cooperation and integration in the developing world. This book investigates the economics of various ASEAN and ASEAN-centric economic integration initiatives, focusing in particular on the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). In addition to assessing the potential effects of the AEC on the economies of the ten ASEAN member states via changes in trade, foreign direct investment and economic structure, this book underscores the implementation challenges ASEAN faces as it completes the AEC project. It also considers the AEC in the context of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). This comprehensive study is written for academic researchers and students, as well as for policy makers in ASEAN as they chart the future policy path of the region.

ASEAN's External Agreements
  • Law, Practice and the Quest for Collective Action
  • Marise Cremona, David Kleimann, Joris Larik, Rena Lee, Pascal Vennesson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • ASEAN is coming of age as an international actor and international treaty-maker. To date, more than two hundred external agreements and other instruments have been concluded in the name of ASEAN. This book provides the first systematic account of the legal framework governing ASEAN's burgeoning external relations practice. It focuses in depth on ASEAN's wide-ranging mandate to promote its values and principles in the wider region and beyond, as well as the highly intergovernmental, and at times haphazard, handling of the bloc's relations with the outside world. Furthermore, it reveals that there are two basic meanings of ASEAN in its international dealings, which have important implications under international law: ASEAN as an international organisation with its own legal personality and ASEAN as the collectivity of its member states. This timely and thoughtful book is a valuable resource for practitioners and scholars of international law, ASEAN law, international relations, regional integration and governance.

ASEAN as an Actor in International Fora
  • Reality, Potential and Constraints
  • Paruedee Nguitragool, Jűrgen Rűland
  • Published online:
    05 May 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • ASEAN as an Actor in International Fora addresses a blind spot in ASEAN research and in comparative regionalism studies by assessing why, how, when and to what extent ASEAN member governments achieve a collective presence in global fora. Written for academic researchers and practitioners working in areas such as international relations, political science and international law, it examines ASEAN's negotiating behavior with a novel four-point cohesion typology. The authors argue that ASEAN's 'cognitive prior' and its repository of cooperation norms have affected ASEAN's negotiation capacities, formats, strategies and cohesion in international fora. Using two case studies - one on ASEAN's cohesion in the WTO agricultural negotiations and one on UN negotiations on forced labor in Myanmar - they examine ASEAN's collective actions at different stages of negotiation, in different issue areas and in different negotiating fora. The book concludes by providing recommendations for strengthening ASEAN's international negotiation capacities.

From Treaty-Making to Treaty-Breaking
  • Models for ASEAN External Trade Agreements
  • Pieter Jan Kuijper, James H. Mathis, Natalie Y. Morris-Sharma
  • Published online:
    05 April 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • From Treaty-Making to Treaty-Breaking is the first high-level analysis of ASEAN's external trade agreements with non-ASEAN states. It clearly sets out the intended, and unintended, consequences of ASEAN's prevailing method of treaty making, with suggested guidelines for the future. The book begins by asking whether ASEAN trade agreements follow worldwide trends in the substantive content of such agreements. It raises questions such as: to what extent is it possible to continue concluding trade agreements through individual member states?; what are the legal consequences - from negotiation and conclusion (treaty-making) through to possible breach of the agreements (treaty-breaking)?; should ASEAN resort to mixed treaty-making? This study does not seek to give a definitive answer to these questions, rather it opens up the topic to readers by suggesting different possible models for ASEAN trade agreements. This thought-provoking book will appeal to anyone interested in trade negotiations and trade agreements, particularly in Asia.

Towards a Rules-Based Community: An ASEAN Legal Service
  • Jean-Claude Piris, Walter Woon
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    12 March 2015
  • In 2007, ASEAN adopted the ASEAN Charter, which stated its ambition to become a 'rules-based' community respecting the rule of law. In order to fulfil this objective, it is vital that the necessary legal infrastructure has effective legal support. This book helps readers to understand the need for and role of such a legal service. To begin with, it explores the way ASEAN and its various institutions have evolved. The current situation with respect to the making of rules and settlement of disputes is then analysed, drawing not only on published primary and secondary materials, but also on the experience of diplomats, officials and legal officers. Finally, the authors draw on their practical experiences, as former attorney-general of an ASEAN member state and former head of the European Council legal service, to make recommendations on how an ASEAN Legal Service might be organised.

Rules of Origin in ASEAN
  • A Way Forward
  • Stefano Inama, Edmund W. Sim
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    26 February 2015
  • Rules of Origin in ASEAN is the first in-depth exploration of the complex rules of origin in ASEAN's trade agreements. Written by two leading practitioners, it explains with clarity the existing ASEAN Rules of Origin (RoO) practices and their administration regimes in a comparative context and provide a recommendation for reform. The ASEAN RoOs can be simplified by imparting transparency and predictability to the legal drafting, focusing on a calculation method based on value of materials and lowering the regional value content required to qualify as ASEAN origin. The administration of ASEAN RoOs can be improved by expanding the use of self-certification, moving away from document-based verification to more modern post-entry audit and trade facilitation approaches. This is a timely and important topic which will be insightful to practitioners, policymakers and businesses in understanding how commerce and trade are conducted in Southeast Asia.

From Community to Compliance?
  • The Evolution of Monitoring Obligations in ASEAN
  • Simon Chesterman
  • Published online:
    05 March 2015
    Print publication:
    16 April 2015
  • In the past decade, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has transformed from a periodic meeting of ministers to setting ambitious goals of becoming a Community by 2015. ASEAN is now the most important regional organisation in the history of the continent of Asia. An important tension in this transformation is the question of whether the 'ASEAN way' - defined by consultation and consensus, rather than enforceable obligations - is consistent with the establishment of a community governed by law. This book examines the growing interest in following through on international commitments, in particular monitoring implementation and compliance. Key barriers remain, in particular the lack of resources and ongoing resistance to accepting binding obligations. It remains to be seen whether these trends herald a more measured approach to decision-making in ASEAN. Written for practitioners and researchers alike, this important book provides the first systematic survey of monitoring within ASEAN.