Use of legal instruments in the ASEAN Economic Community building

Abstract

Using the official data of the ASEAN Secretariat, this paper applies a data-based approach to present the general trends of use of legal instruments in building the ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN integration as a whole. ASEAN has intensified the use of legal instruments in the last five decades to reach 240 signed legal instruments by December 2020. With the frequent use of supplementary instruments, ASEAN takes a gradual and practical approach to integration. Consensus remains the key principle of decision-making in making legal instruments. There is no single legal instrument signed without consensus, even in the economic pillar. By contrast, ASEAN allows phased implementation. While a majority of ASEAN legal instruments enter into force only with full membership, many instruments also allow flexible participation (i.e., effective only among certain members). Such mechanism of flexibility is probably a way to progress integration in a group of diversity while continuing to respect the consensus principle in decision-making.