Constitutional Pluralism in Southeast Asia

Participants of the workshop on ‘Constitutional Pluralism in Southeast Asia’.

The workshop on ‘Constitutional Pluralism in Southeast Asia’, organized by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), was held on 27 & 28 July 2017 at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (Bukit Timah Campus). Convened by Dr Jaclyn Neo (Assistant Professor, NUS Faculty of Law) and Dr Bui Ngoc Son (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), NUS Faculty of Law), the workshop is part of a research project supported by CALS. The project examines how constitutional orders in individual Southeast Asian countries respond to a range of ethnic, political, and legal plurality in the respective countries. Specifically, it examines: (1) pluralist constitutional values and ideas embedded in the constitutions; (2) pluralist sources of constitutional norms; (3) design of constitutional structure (including, election system, the separation of power, federation, and decentralization) to address plurality; and (4) the way the bill of rights (including the competing universal and contextual principles of constitutional rights, proportionality, and specific rights) are designed to respond to plurality.

Participants at the workshop discussed country chapters / presentations on the ten ASEAN Member States, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Associate Professor Dan Puchniak, Director of the NUS Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) giving the Welcome Address.

Assistant Professor Jaclyn Neo, Principal Investigator and workshop co-convenor, gave an introduction on the research project.

Dr Bui Ngoc Son, co-Investigator and workshop co-convenor, presenting a paper on Constitutional Pluralism in Vietnam.

Dr Dominik Müller (centre) from Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany), presenting a paper on Constitutional Pluralism in Brunei. On the left is Dr Kerstin Steiner from La Trobe University who is the co-

author of the paper and on the right is Dr Herlambang Wiratraman from Universitas Airlangga.

Dr Herlambang Wiratraman from Universitas Airlangga and Dr Dian Shah from NUS Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) answering questions on their joint presentation on Constitutional Pluralism in

Indonesia.

Adjunct Professor Kevin Tan from NUS Law with Mr Taing Ratana from Constitutional Council of Cambodia and Pannasastra University of Cambodia

List of Workshop Participants (in order of family name) Speakers: • Dian Diana Binti Abdul Hamed Shah (National University of Singapore) • Apinop Atipiboonsin (Thammasat University) • Bui Ngoc Son (National University of Singapore) • Nyi Nyi Kyaw (National University of Singapore) • Dominik M. Müller (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Germany)) • Jaclyn L. Neo (National University of Singapore) • Khamphaeng Phochanthilath (ZICOlaw (Laos) Sole Co., Ltd) • Kerstin Steiner (La Trobe University) • Ratana Taing (Constitutional Council of Cambodia and Pannasastra University of

Cambodia) • Eugene KB Tan (Singapore Management University) • Bryan Dennis Gabito Tiojanco (Bo) (Yale Law School) • Herlambang Perdana Wiratraman (Universitas Airlangga)

Moderators: • Michael Dowdle (National University of Singapore) • Nicole Roughan (National University of Singapore) • Maartje De Visser (Singapore Management University)

Commentators: • Kevin YL Tan (National University of Singapore) • Thio Li-ann (National University of Singapore)