ASEAN E-Commerce Legal Framework and Alignment of Lao PDR: A Review

In the era of digital technology, the internet has become a new channel for meeting and social interaction of people all around the world, and it has also become an essential platform for commercial activities, especially e-commerce. E-commerce has become a significant driving force for the growth of the economy for all regions around the world. For example, ASEAN, ICT, and e-commerce are recognized as an essential segment for regional integration. ASEAN developed its legal framework in order to promote and facilitate the development of ICT and the growth of e-commerce within the region. Unlike the European Union, ASEAN is not a supranational organization, and it cannot legislate for a whole community. Thus its e-commerce legal framework is developed by harmonizing the Member Countries' national laws into the regional legal system. This paper aims to introduce how ASEAN designs its legal framework for regional cooperation, with a focus on e-commerce. The paper presents how Lao PDR, as a member country of ASEAN, fulfills provisions agreed under the e-ASEAN framework to help understand the way ASEAN Member Countries undertake action to align with ASEAN e-commerce legal framework. To this end, this paper also provides an overview of the e-commerce of ASEAN as a whole and Lao PDR. Keywords: ASEAN, Lao PDR, E-Commerce Legal Framework, Regional Legal System

Law Concept in ASEAN Economic Community – A Study of e-Commerce Legal Modernization

This research project is an investigation of the regional legal regime in the ASEAN Community. The thesis has adopted a functional, rather than conceptual, approach to understand the regional legalism of ASEAN. The study also provides a contemporary topic related to highlights of the ASEAN’s recent engagement in the regional economic integration to help understand the historic background of its community-building. The main question in this thesis is what law regime of ASEAN Community without supranational structures is, in which the thesis narrows the case study on development of e-commerce law of ASEAN under economic community-building. To answer this question, the thesis firstly investigates the ground of regional integration and legalization in the Community-building, where ASEAN has adopted an instrumentalist conception of the legalism and one based on ‘thin’ constitutionalism. The features of the legal regime in the ASEAN Community are – state-controlled, limited, evolutionary and resting on soft legal regime unlike the European Union that depends more on hard law regime. Despite this, it is argued that even though the European Union model is often utilized as a mother of inspiration, each regional integration bears different model constituent in order to make the best adapt to their regional or local contexts. This thesis examines the ASEAN’s approach in developing regional legal system through the case of e-commerce law development, as well as the challenges in connection with the legal regime and e-commerce laws under the regional integration. The thesis establishes the findings to the exact legal development methods taken by ASEAN in chasing regional e-commerce law and policy. The findings indicate that ASEAN applies a soft legal regime through approach of legal harmonization regarding substantivate commerce law, while abstaining from building a centralized representative body or institution. The study also reveals that although ASEAN has made a great progress in developing principles of e-commerce law among ASEAN jurisdictions and series of e-commerce laws are developed and harmonized, but the complex legal and institutional regime can significantly undermine implementation and enforcement of regional laws of ASEAN. and remain some key challenges

Chinese Business and the Internet: The Infrastructure for Trust

Although the Internet and E-commerce revolutions have clearly taken hold in the United States and Europe, the Chinese culture has been slow to adopt the Internet as a marketplace. The Authors cite a lack of trust on the part of both potential consumers and potential merchants as the primary obstacle to a robust Chinese E-commerce community. To remedy this lack of trust, the Article proposes the nation seek a middle way between reforms guided by Western rule of law and Eastern rule of ethics, thus incorporating effective regulatory strategies and the philosophical resources already within the Chinese cultural consciousness. The Authors propose a framework based on three distinct varieties of trust, and apply that framework across the specific policy problems that impede vibrant E-commerce in China--namely, the development of a workable regulatory regime, and the particular problems of privacy and defamation that seem to be related to the growth of E-commerce. Ultimately, the Authors suggest that to successfully navigate this dramatic shift to an Internet-enabled economy, China should embrace its past but recognize that the new E-commerce context also may demand new solutions

E-commerce legal framework for ASEAN: A Model code

Master'sMASTER OF LAW