Asian Legal Review

In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations.
China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a more dirigiste model under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not only in…

Vietnam has expanded its outposts in the South China Sea by hundreds of acres over the past year, according to a new report, as Hanoi and Beijing race to reinforce competing territorial claims through land reclamation.
Vietnam has added about 534 acres (2.16 square km) of land in the Spratly Islands, bringing its total reclaimed area to roughly 2,771 acres (11.2 square km), according to the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.
While Hanoi had appeared to be narrowing the gap…

Deeper economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hinge on whether a code can be laid down to govern maritime territory and activity in the South China Sea, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said.
“We cannot institutionalise any of those things until the code of conduct is finalised,” he told a press conference on Friday at the close of the 48th Asean summit in Cebu, when asked about aspects that held the most potential in relations between…

One in three large companies had a VAT investigation launched against them last year, highlighting HMRC’s focus on closing the tax gap, an expert has said.

The recently concluded Balikatan joint drills have marked a shift in the Philippines’ defence strategy alongside Japan, with Tokyo offering the transfer of warships to its Southeast Asian ally, while a top Filipino official for the first time voiced “serious concern” over islands claimed by Beijing and Tokyo.
Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Wednesday said Manila now considered the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands, a security flashpoint in the…

EU rules regarding AI systems categorised as ‘high-risk’ will take effect from late 2027, not this summer as is scheduled, if a new deal struck by legislators is adopted in the coming weeks.

The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Thursday to pursue trust-building measures to advance a fragile ceasefire and establish peace, after rare talks over last year’s deadly fighting between the two neighbours.
Troops remain deployed ‌on both sides of their long-disputed 817km (508-mile) border after battles in July and December when skirmishes quickly escalated into air strikes and heavy exchanges of artillery and rockets.
The Philippines, which is hosting Asean meetings on the island…

Two Singapore residents who were on board the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius are currently being isolated at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), where they are being tested for the virus.
“Their test results are pending. One has a runny nose but is otherwise well, and the other is asymptomatic. The risk to the general public in Singapore is currently low,” the Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA) said on Thursday.
CDA said it was notified on Monday and Tuesday that the…

A move by global pop icon Taylor Swift to trademark her voice marks the latest step in celebrity fears over AI manipulation, according to an intellectual property expert.

A passenger bus collided head-on with a fuel tanker truck on a highway on Indonesia’s Sumatra island on Wednesday, killing at least 16 people and injuring four others, officials said.
The crash occurred around midday on the Trans-Sumatra Highway in North Musi Rawas regency of South Sumatra province, when an intercity bus carrying at least 20 people struck a tanker truck travelling in the opposite direction, said Mugono, a local disaster management agency official.
Mugono, who uses a single name…