Author
Ms Anne McNaughton
Organisation/Institution
The Australian National University, ANU College of Law
Country
AUSTRALIA
Panel
International Law
Title
Restoring the Rule of Law to our Rules-based International Order
Abstract
Using the European Union and ASEAN as case studies, this paper interrogates the rule of law as the fundamental operating principle of our rules-based international order, from which all other principles and values flow. Beginning with an acknowledgement of the contested nature of this principle, the paper engages with Ambrus’ assertion that ‘[e]xplicitly or implicitly it [the principle of the rule of law] pervades all spheres of legal life. Using the framework developed by Abbott et al, the paper explores the increased institutionalization that has occurred in ASEAN through the adoption of the ASEAN Community blueprints. Similarly to other post-colonial regions, the evolution of an ‘ASEAN legal system’ has been led by its Member States, all of which jealously guard their sovereignty and engage in the ASEAN process on an explicitly intergovernmental basis. Whereas the EU was institutionally ‘thick’ from the outset, institutionalization has evolved slowly in ASEAN . Nonetheless, as a community, ASEAN reflects the six core elements of Valcke’s definition of law as ‘collective commitment’ and her conception of law that is ‘sufficiently broad to accommodate plurality – one or several ‘others’ – but not so broad as to lose all sense of unity and of ‘self’.’ The aim of the paper is to test whether such ‘collective commitment’ is also a manifestation of the rule of law.
Biography
I am a comparative lawyer researching at the intersection of international and comparative law. I am also the Director of the ANU Centre for European Studies (ANUCES). As a recipient of a DAAD scholarship, I completed my first LLM at the Eberhard-Karls University in Tübingen (Germany). My thesis, The incorporation of the territory of former East Germany into the European Union, was written in German. I established the undergraduate course on European Union (EU) law at University of New South Wales (UNSW) and completed my second LLM at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), specialising in International Law (with Distinction). I have successfully completed my doctorate with a thesis, ‘Reshaping the Rules-based International Order: case studies in action’. My degree will be conferred in February 2025. I am particularly interested in the complex issues associated with how global economic integration affects the local legal framework at various levels. I research the concept of mutual recognition as developed in EU jurisprudence and its migration into international trade treaties and agreements. Building on this work, my current research examines the nature of legal transplants between new and emerging legal systems of international law. I have conducted this research as a member of an Australian Research Grant Linkage project that examined the changing nature of the trade and business relationship between Australia and the European Union. I have also been a member, and research lead, of several research projects funded through the European Union’s Jean Monnet activities programme.
