Regional Judicial Cooperation and Dialogue in Asia

This chapter focuses on avenues by which judges in Asia interact with their counterparts in other States on constitutional questions. The practice of judicial networking in Asia is illustrated through case studies of the Association of Asian Constitutional Courts, the Asian Judges Network on Environment, and the Korean Constitutional Court. The chapter argues that the existing culture of judicial cooperation is characterised by a competitive dynamic and instrumentalism rather than infused with the notions of comity and parity that are regularly associated with direct judicial contact in horizontal settings. A growing emphasis placed on transnational training and education is laying a foundation for formalised cooperation. Meanwhile, geographic proximity is on the ascent as an identity marker, with the result that future judicial cooperation arrangements may exhibit a stronger intra-Asian or sub-regional dimension.