Philippine anthology in a post-anthropology age / Michael L. Tan -- Philippine demography @ 44, continuing tradition of excellence in training and research in nation-building / Corazon M. Raymundo -- Pinoy English, a case of language drift / Jonathan C. Malicsi -- Political science, the discipline, the academe, and Philippine politics / Athene Lydia C. Casambre -- Ang Kasaysayan sa pagbuo ng sambayanan / Jaime B. Veneracion -- The geographical traditions and the reassertion of space in critical social theory and praxis / Meliton B. Juanico
Development of Indonesian national law should not leave attention to development of legal plurality as its source. Focus of this study is to see the influence of Indonesian social factors on the development of Islamic law and how Islamic law can be integratively transformed into the National Law. By qualitative method and socio-legal approach and constructivism paradigm, this study bases on theories of social change influeces on Islamic law law without leaving methodology of usul fiqh and the sources of Islamic law. Islamic law has broad opportunity and experiences to be integratively transformed into national law within Indonesia's own character. Transformation can be done in the whole structure of Islamic law including its values of philosophy, principles and norms, and can be performed in all areas, both private and public Law, written law by political power and unwritten law with cultural approach. However, Islamic law as one of the Indonesia living laws and the sources of National law, still today is viewed in dichotomy to the National law and only transformed in limited norms. There are many obstacles to be transformed into national law integratively and widely, though Islamic law has wide space of interpretation and intellectualism that can adapt to different contexts and National law.
This paper analyses the important of regional investment agreements for promoting international trade in ASEAN countries. To visualize the above idea, this work will explain the roles of regional investment agreements to serve investment, trade facilitation and to protect regional investment interests. It is argued that regional investment agreements can serve as a vehicle for dialogue, coordination on and to response regional issues including regulatory harmonization, infrastructure development, and collaboration among members to facilitate investment. The paper shows how regional agreements will commit to eliminate barriers on substantially trade and investment, create positive welfare gains, the productivity and stimulus to growth in the region. This paper also analyses the effect of the establishment of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015 to the regional investment policies. AEC aiming at transforming ASEAN into a single market and production base with a highly competitive economic region, equitable economic development, free movement of goods, services, investment, skilled labor, and freer flow of capital, will likely accelerate regional integration and cooperation in the investment sectors fully integrated into the international trade. Then, this work demonstrates the implementation of regional investment cooperation into the formal instruments/agreements of investment policy architecture promoting and protecting cross border investment among nationals of ASEAN member states, such as ASEAN Investment Guarantee Agreement (IGA), the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) and ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA). However, it is realized that the ASEAN members may resist and protest against the regional investment agreements because of conflicting their national interest. The paper proposed that the regional inv stment agreements need to be strengthened by harmonization and structural adjustment due to the member's resistance and protest. This idea may spark challenge because each member has fundamental differences on the nature and character of legal and economic systems reflecting different political systems, economic and social cultures in accordance with the philosophy of life values and national interests of each country. To overcome the challenge, this paper argues that ASEAN member countries need to unilaterally and collectively come up with structuring trade and investment policy harmonization to move ahead and reap the benefits from regional investment agreement as a common tool for contesting their interest in international trade. In addition, pre agreed flexibilities to accommodate the interests of all ASEAN countries may eliminate the problem.
