In its bid to promote the general welfare of all of its member nations, an online portal which offers access to information on judicial and legal policies and systems of every ASEAN member nation including Singapore has been launched by the organization last July 27 (Friday).
The initiative which is now officially recognized as the ASEAN Judiciaries Portal (AJP), is the first of its kind in the world. The idea was first brought up at the 1st Council of ASEAN Chief Justices (CACJ) Meeting back in August 2013 and has been officially launched at the 6th CACJ meeting last July 27.
Online Compendium of ASEAN Countries’ Judicial and Legal Systems Launched
The AJP seeks to promote transparency and information-sharing to anyone wish to learn more, discover, and appreciate the judicial and legal environments of individual ASEAN member countries to help promote commerce and sustain the flow of investments within the region, shared Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon in his opening statement at the meeting.
While the portal offers a restricted members-only section for ASEAN judiciaries to share information with each other, the platform will not only benefit the ten members within the regional bloc as shareholders and investors from other regions can also use the portal as a tool to strategize international trade efforts and make legally-informed investment decisions, which in turn, could hasten the developments of opportunities in the field of trade and commerce across regions.
Moreover, lawyers can also use the information available on this portal to get necessary information on matters involving foreign policies. The launch of the AJP will allow for more well-founded investment planning efforts for both local and international enterprises all over the world.
The 6th CACJ meeting was held along with the 13th ASEAN Law General Assembly and the ASEAN Law Conference which will end on July 28.
The AJP can be accessed by clicking here.