Towards a rules-based community: An ASEAN legal service
Abstract
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.
The strategic geographical situation of ASEAN waters, making this area often misused as a transportation method by the perpetrators of transnational organized crimes (TOC). Most cases are people smuggling, human trafficking, illicit drugs and even slavery. Recently, it is found that those crimes are often committed in one vessel accompanying illegal fishing. ASEAN countries are state parties to the Palermo Convention on Trans Organized Crimes and its protocols. In addition, they also bound with regional legal instruments such as on human trafficking, counter terrorism and mutual legal assistance. Nonetheless, crimes do not stop. Cases are often settled by diplomatic measures instead of law enforcement by the spirit of ASEAN Way. This brings vagueness and confusion among law enforcement officers, should ASEAN Way neglect the rule of law? Hence, the objective of the research is to examine the situation and give recommendations on legal models in the prevention and law enforcement of TOC within ASEAN waters. The author compared the EU's legal system and mechanism in combating the crimes within regional perspective. Research found that political approach is somehow prevailing by the virtue of ASEAN Way. Furthemore, this ASEAN Way seems to justify the weakness of ASEAN Countries in law enforcement in preventing as well as combating TOC in ASEAN waters. Although the EU is not an apple to apple regional organisation compared with ASEAN, they have similar legal framework and mechanism to combat TOC. Hence, we can be optimistic that the rule of law in ASEAN should be prioritized and not contravene with ASEAN Way. Keywords: ASEAN Way, law enforcement, regional cooperation, rule of law, trans-national organized crimes. AbstrakLokasi geografis perairan negara-negara ASEAN yang strategis seringkali disalahgunakan oleh para pelaku kejahatan transnasional terorganisir sebagai media transportasi. Berbagai kejahatan yang terjadi di wilayah perairan ini diantaranya penyelundupan manusia, perdagangan manusia, penyelundupan narkotika, penyelundupan flora fauna langka yang dilindungi dan bahkan perbudakan. Dalam perkembangannya ditemukan fakta bahwa kejahatan-kejahatan tersebut tidak berdiri sendiri melainkan dilakukan bersamaan dengan penangkap ikan ilegal. Negara-negara ASEAN adalah pihak terhadap Konvensi Palermo tentang Kejahatan Terorganisir dan protokol-protokol yang menyertainya. Artinya, mereka terikat dengan kewajiban untuk mengimplementasikan instrumen tersebut diantaranya dalam tindakan pencegahan dan penegakan hukum. Selain itu, negara-negara ASEAN juga terikat dengan berbagai instrumen regional misalnya terkait perdagangan manusia, terorisme dan bantuan timbal balik. Namun kejahatan masih terus terjadi. Berbagai kasus diselesaikan secara diplomatis dilandasi semangat ASEAN Way daripada penegakan hukum. Hal ini menimbulkan ketidakjelasan dan kebingungan di antara para penegak hukum, apakah semangat ASEAN Way lebih diutamakan daripada penegakkan hukum? Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengidentifikasi situasi yang terjadi dan menganalisanya guna memperoleh masukan berupa model terbaik dalam rangka pencegahan dan penegakan hukum terhadap kejahatan transnasional terorganisir. Penulis melakukan perbandingan dengan kerangka hukum dan mekanisme di EU untuk mengambil praktik terbaik. Hasil riset menyatakan bahwa pendekatan politis lebih diutamakan di ASEAN atas landasan ASEAN Way. Sehingga hal ini seolah menjadi pembenaran bagi lemahnya perlindungan dan penegakan hukum terhadap kejahatan transnasional terorganisir oleh negara-negara di ASEAN. Meskipun EU dapat dianggap bukan pembanding yang seimbang, namun EU memiliki kemiripan kerangka hukum dan mekanisme dengan ASEAN dalam pencegahan dan penanganan TOC. Oleh karenanya, penulis optimis bahwa pendekatan hukum perlu diprioritaskan dan hal ini tidak bertentangan dengan ASEAN Way. Kata kunci: ASEAN Way, kejahatan di laut, kejahatan transnasional terorganisir, kerjasama regional, penegakan hukum, rule of law.
While the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter has been read by commentators as a constitutional document, its use of the peoples of Southeast Asia as fictional authors of the text has not been fully explored. A people’s reading of the ASEAN Charter provides a critical perspective that uncovers the elitist and statist nature of this document. A close textual analysis of the preamble reveals that these purported authors are displaced by the Heads of State as the speaking subject and creators of the new legal entity. This textual displacement transforms the constituent treaty into a state monologue as it imposes a utopian vision of capitalism on the geopolitical body of the region. Contrary to its democratic claims, the Charter has only constitutionalised reification, class structures, and the exclusion of the peoples from power. The ASEAN constitution silences its own authors.
ASEAN Consumer Law Harmonisation and Cooperation - by Luke Nottage September 2019
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.
Regional organizations have been widely criticized for lacking democratic legitimacy, but these criticisms have been rather ad hoc, concerned with single case studies and reliant on unclear standards or metrics. Are all organizations similarly deficient? And how does the European Union (EU), the target par excellence of the criticisms, fare in comparative perspective? In this paper, we take a first step towards answering these questions by leveraging the rich debate on the EU to identify several institutional dimensions of democratic legitimacy and operationalizing them for comparative analysis. We then investigate the most important regional economic organizations (REOs) in the world. Our findings are three-fold: (i) there is systematic variation across REOs, with a group doing rather well, one mixed, and one poorly; (ii) procedural dimensions fare better than those related to representation or local self-determination; (iii) no organization exhibits or lacks legitimacy in all dimensions. These results qualify the perception that democratic legitimacy deficits are indiscriminately pervasive and indicate that the EU belongs to the most democratically legitimate group.
The establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) should transform this regional association of states into “single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy” (AEC Blueprint). The present study analyzes the current level of progress in introducing a regional competition law and policy that would create a level playing field for the businesses within the AEC. The paper also addresses the functionality of current “ASEAN way” of coordinating the enforcement of the national competition laws across the ASEAN jurisdictions. The second part of the study outlines the experiences of the decade of decentralized enforcement of competition rules within the Internal Market of the European Union (EU) through cooperation and coordination between the EU Commission and national competition authorities (NCAs) of the EU Member States within the European Competition Network (ECN). Special focus of the research is on the “effect on trade”, which is used as a jurisdictional criterion that determines application of the EU competition rules and national competition rules. The lessons from the functioning of the ECN can be instructive for the development of the regional framework for competition law and policy in the AEC and wider Asia-Pacific region, where the growing number of the national competition law regimes require cooperation and coordination among the NCAs and more generally between the states under the multitude of regional free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties, which often contain competition enforcement obligations.
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