Southeast Asia: a community of diversity

The region known as the Southeast provides the basis for a broad political community characterized by cultural and ethnic diversity, disparities in economic performance, and differences in regime and constitutional foundations. In recent years, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) group of nations has made strides toward building a community based on respect for these differences. Despite a growing acceptance for democratic processes and human rights, the influence of these values over existing institutions and state behavior remains incomplete. The future development of the ASEAN region, and the nations that comprise it, is likely to be based on the strength and character of the relationships these states forge with one another and with more powerful external actors.

Interest, nations, and the state in development: Instability in archipelic Southeast Asia

The Southeast Asian archipelago has become marked by divisions
within existing states, placing significant local constraints upon
the process of ‘development’. These divisions include ‘vertical’
challenges to the state, i.e. they have the capacity to split the state
into geographic divisions based on proto-nationalist identity, and
‘horizontal’ challenges to the state, defined by ethnic and
communal rivalry and conflict. This brief paper will canvas some
issues in such divisions.

Compositional connections : temple form in early Southeast Asia

The temples of Southeast Asia are remarkable and intriguing in their architecture, in that they are obviously derivative from Indic canon and yet
profoundly original and different from the corpus of the subcontinent. Further, the regional nuances of these temples, whether in Java, Cambodia or Champa, defy obvious and linear connections within these traditions and with the pan-Indic corpus. While epigraphists, Sanskritists and historians have made significant connections between these temple building traditions, much work remains to be done on the compositional and architectural linkages along the trading routes of South and Southeast Asia. This paper is an early attempt at understanding the compositional connections, as evident in the temple forms of early southeast Asia. To elucidate the complex material, the authors deploy a comparative method on two levels. Between ideal notions of the Hindu temple and shared cosmogony on one hand and individual temples as a realization of the ideal on the other. The consideration of the compositional material yields some surprisingly rich and varied connections. For example, the affinities between 7th century cellas in Cambodia and early Gupta models from central India are difficult to ignore. Further, the linkages between these cellas and the early Deccan experiments in structural stone raise questions about both idioms. The range of experimentation in Cambodia
(in plan forms, superstructure and construction methods are discussed with reference to their Indic antecedents. The findings of the paper raise questions about the relation between temple and treatise; between theory and practice and between the individual temple and its collective corpus.

Intellectual property law in Southeast Asia : Recent legislative and institutional developments

Over the last few decades, countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) all had to revise their intellectual property systems. These revisions resulted at first from bilateral pressure of major trading partners such as the US and EU, then from the WTO-TRIPS Agreement and more recently from bilateral Free Trade Agreements. To observe the IP developments in ASEAN over this period is interesting, because this group of countries covers developed (Singapore), developing as well as least developed countries. All countries had to reform their outdated laws from the colonial era in very short time. However, in comparison to the early 1980s, important differences with regards to intellectual property policies have emerged in recent years.

This article will briefly sketch the developments in individual ASEAN countries and after that examine some broader trends in law making, IP administration, enforcement and the court system. It concludes that the ASEAN enlargement process has created a very diverse picture with regards to IP. With the fast pace of the legislative development, countries have been struggling to keep up with the creation of the institutional and administrative framework. Progress in the ASEAN harmonisation process has been limited. Statistics indicate that some of the new laws have been reasonably well received at the domestic level, while the patent sector remains foreign dominated.

The role of traditional knowledge and access to genetic resources in biodiversity conservation in Southeast Asia

The article examines international treaties linking trade and environment, their governance models and implementation in the context of Southeast Asia. Particular attention is being paid to the role of intellectual property concepts, customary law and traditional knowledge as incentives for biodiversity conservation and to difficulties in defining the subject matter and communities of knowledge holders. Indonesia’s regulation of traditional knowledge and access to biodiversity is discussed as example. The article concludes that national development goals and interests in royalty collection frequently dominate the discussion and that key concepts are still insufficiently defined to avoid overlaps and conflicts. Genuine local support for the conservationist aims of the models will depend on whether a benefit flow to communities can be ensured and their original role to act as incentives can be realised. International collaboration is important to avoid disputes concerning biodiversity related knowledge held across borders.

Plant variety protection and traditional agricultural knowledge in Southeast Asia

This article provides an overview of the emerging plant variety protection (PVP) systems in Southeast Asia. The case studies are from countries that form part of the regional Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), mainly Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand. The focus will be on the intersection between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and popular demands for the protection of the traditional knowledge (TK) of local communities. Factors that fuelled the emergence and shaped the content of the PVP laws were the obligation to comply with art 27(3)(b) of the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), aspirations for the development of the biotechnology industry, avoidance of possible sanction under the US ‘Special 301’ procedure, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), the role played by the International Union for the Protection of New Plant Varieties (UPOV), technical assistance from UPOV member countries, membership of international biodiversity treaties and demands from civil society organisations for protection of TK. The PVP laws that resulted present an uneasy amalgam of conventional property rights with some aspects of protection of TK. It is very likely that the local communities claiming TK rights will face legal hurdles, in as much as government agencies implementing the law will face administrative and technical complications.