Director General for Asia Pacific and Africa Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia Abdul Kadir Jailani Gives Guest Lecture Discussing ASEAN Legal Order
The Faculty of Law, Airlangga University, invited one of its best alums, Abdul Kadir Jailani from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to give a guest lecture with the theme ASEAN Legal Order. Abdul Kadir Jailani currently serves as Director General for Asia, Pacific, and Africa, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Previously he was entrusted by the Government of Indonesia as the Indonesian Ambassador to Canada concurrently with ICAO, based in Ottawa.
Abdul Kadir Jailani started his lecture by bringing up the theme of the ASEAN Legal Order by asking students about ASEAN. Then he explained the lecture material. ASEAN was formed initially as a political organization, which at that time was to ward off communism in the Southeast Asian region. In its development, ASEAN finally had its constitution, namely the ASEAN Charter. ASEAN became a ruled-based organization. In the context of ASEAN Law, ASEAN has characteristics and characteristics. Among other things, it has the character of the ASEAN Way, is intergovernmental, giving a very different picture from the European Union, which is supranational, and there is no transfer of competence.
Meanwhile, according to him, talking about the ASEAN Way needed a specific explanation. However, the point is that everything must be done by consensus, in informal, non-confrontational ways, to avoid conflict and be flexible for all member countries. But of course, the ASEAN Way has its implications. This impact is not only seen from the negative side, but there is also a positive impact in the form of the unity of ASEAN.
His myriad experiences also provide an overview of the ASEAN Political Community. In the context of dispute resolution, flexible models are expected. With a note that there is indeed a slow normative development. Particularly in human rights issues, it is very different from the European Union model. ASEAN has AICHR as a consultative organization and does not have a mechanism for conducting assessments. Shifting to the issue of the ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN implements joint economic integration to the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community, which places more emphasis on soft laws. Still, there are also notes that ASEAN failed to establish protection regarding the issue of migrant worker protection. This is motivated by differences between several member countries. Indonesia is trying hard to realize the migrant worker protection movement, especially encouraging the formation of international conventions.
And the last discussion, related to dispute resolution, he emphasized that this mechanism has only been used today. This is related to the legal culture between member countries, which tends to avoid legal problems, as mentioned in Article 25 of the ASEAN Charter.
In closing, ASEAN has yet to reach a legal order, but it is still a legal regime. In its application, there are many criticisms, including the lack of legal clarity, lack of legal culture, and the need for progressive development. “Thus, very high appreciation for FH UNAIR, who has started teaching ASEAN Law courses,” he concluded.
