Seah, Daniel Chin Aun; (2018) The ASEAN character of non-intervention: a study of the relationship between general and regional international law. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

How has the practice of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) created a distinctive regional law of non-intervention, and how has general international law influenced the content of that regional law? Answering this question is the aim of this study. The core proposition is that a distinctive regional law of non-intervention is made by ASEAN, which is made possible by general international law, but this influence of general international law can also constrain the scope of regional law. This core proposition is advanced as follows. First, the study demonstrates how an international organisation (such as ASEAN) can make regional law based on the general rules of international law, particularly in relation to an international organisation’s separate legal personality. Second, it examines regional law-making, with particular reference to non-intervention’s content, which is facilitated by United Nation’s organs: non-intervention’s content is variable because it requires making choices, which are made by reference to the general rules of international law. Third, the core proposition is supported by a case study that analyses how ASEAN (organs) used the general rules of international law (especially in relation to separate legal personality) to create a distinctive regional law of non-intervention, during the long Kampuchean conflict (1978-1990). Fourth, the core proposition is advanced through another case study of ASEAN practice regarding Myanmar: it highlights diminutions in non-intervention’s content, in Articles 2 and 10 of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (1976) when evaluated against emerging rules general international law, such as the International Law Commission’s work on protecting persons during disasters. Fifth, in conclusion, this study explains the implications of its core proposition. Prospectively, regional law would still be distinctively made by ASEAN, but on a narrower basis. This is because of geopolitical changes within Southeast Asia, between the United States and China. Consequently, it is foreseeable that some ASEAN member States might not identify themselves as belonging to Southeast Asia anymore.

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