International Criminal Law in Southeast Asia: Beyond the International Criminal Court

Abstract

The underrepresentation of Asian states as parties to the Rome Statute has elicited concerns that the region is significantly falling behind in developing and enforcing international criminal justice. This view accords significance to ratification of the Rome Statute as the primary measure of a country s willingness to give effect to the norms protected by international criminal law. However, the development of international criminal justice mechanisms and substantive law has not entirely escaped Southeast Asia, which has seen the adoption of a spectrum of approaches to international criminal justice, including the establishment of international(ised) criminal institutions, Rome Statute ratifications, and the adoption of domestic legislation addressing international crimes as well as other transitional justice procedures.

This thesis identifies the laws and institutions for prosecuting international crimes in Southeast Asia and considers the arguments presented by different actors to influence states approaches toward international criminal justice. It suggests that a linear account of these developments as deriving from externally driven norm diffusion is incomplete. Instead, drawing particularly on the experiences of Cambodia, the Philippines and Indonesia, this thesis argues that states, international organisations and non-state actors in Southeast Asia have engaged in a process of localisation leading to the adaptation of the international criminal justice norm. The development of mechanisms for prosecuting international crimes across Southeast Asia challenges assumptions about the temporal progression of norm diffusion, spatial designations between local and international ideas and actors, and the direction in which ideas and influences evolve across the world.

This thesis makes significant and original contributions to knowledge by applying a localisation framework to analyse debates about international criminal justice, including with reference to three case studies, and by extending and updating earlier surveys of international criminal laws in Southeast Asian states.