Towards a Rules-Based Community: An ASEAN Legal Service

Description

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.

Jean-Claude Piris is President of Piris Consuting (European and Public International Law), a retired French Conseiller d'Etat, a former diplomat to the UN and former Director of Legal Affairs at the OECD, and was Director General of the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union for over 20 years. He has written several books with Cambridge University Press, most recently The Future of Europe: Towards a Two-Speed EU? (2012). Walter Woon is currently David Marshall Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, the Dean of the Singapore Institute of Legal Education and President of the Goethe Institute Singapore. He was formerly Attorney-General of Singapore, ambassador to the European Communities and several European countries, a member of the High-Level Task Force to draft the ASEAN Charter and a nominated Member of Parliament. Professor Woon specialises in company law, criminal law and international law.