Prof Michael Ewing-Chow and Dr Tan Hsien-Li lead seminar on “The Role of the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration”

Singapore - 3 October 2012

Prof Michael Ewing-Chow and Dr Tan Hsien-Li led a seminar on “The Role of the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration” at the Academy of Global Governance, Executive Training Seminar Series on “Regional Integration Beyond the European Experience: Latin America and Asia”, European University Institute, Florence, on 3–5 October 2012. The purpose of this Executive Training Seminar was to discuss integration schemes on the basis of their own merits, their own goals and their own achievements. Hence, the seminar on ASEAN explored from a historical and normative perspective the aspirations, realities and limitations as ASEAN endeavours to develop into an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015. The discussion touched on (1) economic cooperation, positing that an Integrated Production Network (IPN) that connects intra-ASEAN linkages with the wider Asian environment as the key to ASEAN integration; (2) the core infrastructure that ASEAN needs to reach its goal of regional integration – namely, institutions, legalisation, and mechanisms for resolving disputes; and (3) the pace of integration in the ASEAN Political-Security and Socio-Cultural Communities with a case-study of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). Straddling both the first and third pillars, we find that the AICHR showcases most lucidly the difficulties of regional integration on political, security, social, cultural matters.
 

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