Overseas Project Experience (Non-Asia)

This course will explore interdisciplinary issues on EU-ASEAN law and relations. The EU and ASEAN are the world’s most advanced regional structures and represent different models of integration. Since the 1980s, the evolution of EU-ASEAN relations has provided rich lessons for the multifaceted concept of interregionalism in international law and relations. As ASEAN emerged as a priority on the EU’s Asia policy agenda after the Treaty of Lisbon, the European Commission’s 2015 “Trade for All” strategy articulated an ASEAN strategy based on individual agreements that will lead to a regionto-region framework. The recent conclusion of the EU’s trade and investment agreements with Singapore and Vietnam reinforces this building-block approach for realizing the EU-ASEAN free trade agreement.

Given the changing status of China, the impasse of WTO negotiations, and the COVID-19 pandemic, EU-ASEAN legal frameworks and relations have become more salient on the global stage. In 2020, the two blocs elevated their “Dialogue Partnership to a Strategic Partnership,” which will enhance economic and security cooperation, as well as sustainable connectivity and development. In 2021, the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy further emphasized the EU’s engagement with “the ASEAN-led regional architecture,” particularly given the economic and political impact of the CPTPP and the RCEP.

In particular, the course will assess EU-ASEAN economic agreements with a focus on cutting-edge areas of trade and investment liberalization, AI and digital trade, and sustainable development including the protection of environmental and labour rights. Students will also gain hands-on experience by working with lawyers or policy makers to solve real-world issues.