The Bar Council's International Malaysia Law Conference 2016 ("IMLC 2016") was held at The Royal Chulan Kuala Lumpur from 21 to 23 Sept 2016.
By Syamsuriatina Ishak
A highlight of the first morning of IMLC 2016 was the keynote address delivered by the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Malaysia, Tun Arifin Zakaria. In line with the theme of the conference — “Challenges of an ASEAN Community: Rule of Law, Business and Being People–Oriented” — Tun Arifin expounded on the challenges confronting the ASEAN community.
Tun Arifin spoke of ASEAN — now the seventhlargest economy in the world and third–largest in Asia — and the institution of the ASEAN Economic Community (“AEC”) pillar, which seeks economic integration, aims to establish a common market, and purposes to enhance economic performance in the region. The Chief Justice touched on the Trans–Pacific Partnership Agreement (“TPPA”), which aims to integrate participating Asia–Pacific Economic Cooperation (“APEC”) countries into a single market by eliminating tariff and non–trade barriers, while harmonising rules and regulations among those countries.
On a regional level, Tun Arifin spoke of the joint collaborations between the judicial and legal communities of the ASEAN member states through organisations such as the ASEAN Law Association (“ALA”) and the Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (“CACJ”). He also touched on ASEAN’s part in the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the region via the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (“AICHR”), the adoption of ASEAN’s first human rights instrument (the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration (“AHRD”)) and the ASEAN Socio–Cultural Community (“ASCC”). Due to the differences — an incredible diversity in terms of religion, ethnicity and culture, and wide–ranging levels of development — across ASEAN member states, Tun Arifin remarked that any plan for economic integration would be an uphill task filled with challenges.
Next, the Chief Justice focused on the role played by the Judiciary and legal communities within ASEAN to improve the legal infrastructure as well as to harmonise laws and judicial processes in the region. On judicial reforms in Malaysia, Tun Arifin elaborated on the transformation programme embarked on by the Malaysian Judiciary since 2009 with the goal of creating a smooth and efficient administration of justice. These efforts clearly bore fruit, as Malaysia was placed 18th in both the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2016” report and the latest “Global Competitiveness Report 2015–2016” by the World Economic Forum. Regarding environmental cooperation, Tun Arifin spoke of the ASEAN Chief Justices’ Roundtable on Environment and the Asian Judges Symposium on Environmental Decision Making, the Rule of Law, and Environmental Justice in 2011 and 2010, respectively. At the 6th Roundtable that took place this year, different environmental issues and challenges were discussed, including climate change, deforestation and illegal logging, biodiversity and illegal wildlife trade, ocean destruction, as well as transboundary issues such as haze pollution.
On the way forward, Tun Arifin discussed the lesson which ASEAN could gain from the BREXIT (British Exit) experience, in tackling issues of development inequalities and improving the human rights mechanism, for ASEAN. He concluded by expressing his belief that, with its strong foundation and remarkable achievements, ASEAN would confidently face the future as it pursues greater economic integration, while promoting a more caring and cohesive community.