Inaugural ASEAN Chief Justices' Roundtable on Environment

5 - 7 December 2011

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Introduction
Agenda
Session Materials
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ASEAN Justices Reach Common Vision on Environment

JAKARTA, INDONESIA – Chief Justices and senior judiciary from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on a common vision on the role of the judiciary in tackling regional environmental challenges, such as deforestation and illegal logging, the illicit trade in wildlife, pollution and the destruction of coral reefs.

The agreement was reached at a meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia in a bid to step up cooperation on legal issues linked to the region’s shared environmental threats.

“The Asian Development Bank (ADB) strongly supports the Indonesian Supreme Court in convening this roundtable because Chief Justices and their senior judiciary play a critical role in improving environmental enforcement,” said Jon Lindborg, ADB’s Indonesia Country Director. “This includes championing and leading the legal profession towards credible rule of law systems that have integrity and promote environmental justice.”

The Roundtable for ASEAN Chief Justices on Environment brought together Chief Justices, or their representatives, from member countries of ASEAN. It is jointly organized by ADB and the Supreme Court of Indonesia and supported by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Southeast Asia has a large proportion of its population dependent on agriculture, fishing and other natural resources. These resources are coming under heavy pressure from illegal logging and fishing, and the pollution and destruction of shared marine environments like the world-renowned Coral Triangle. Climate change driven by rising emissions of greenhouse gases also poses an increasing threat.

The roundtable discussed common challenges the judiciary in ASEAN countries face in adjudicating environmental legal cases and the role they can play in championing environmental justice. It culminated in a resolution on shared environmental challenges and areas for future cooperation. Malaysia agreed to host the next roundtable in December 2012.

The event is a follow-up to the Asian Judges’ Symposium on Environmental Decision Making held in Manila, Philippines in 2010, which brought together over 110 judges, environment ministry officials and civil society representatives from Asia, Australia, Brazil, Europe, and the United States. The symposium proposed the establishment of an Asian Judges’ Network on the Environment to help improve adjudication in environment and natural resource cases. ADB is providing technical assistance to support the network along with a parallel initiative in South Asia.

Asian judges, including some in ASEAN countries, have been involved in pioneering legal cases on the environment and are expected to provide valuable inputs at the World Congress on Justice, Governance and Law for Sustainability that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012, immediately prior to the Rio+20 Earth Summit.
ASEAN member countries include Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Objectives

The Symposium seeks to share experience that will lead to an improvement in the quality of environmental adjudication on environment and natural resource cases in Asian jurisdictions and improving access to environmental justice. To do so, it will

bring together judges, environmental ministry officials, and civil society participants from Asian jurisdictions, and senior members of the judiciary and key experts from developed countries and development institutions to understand the factors that have led to the evolution of environmental jurisprudence in Asian and developed country common and civil law courts, and the ways different jurisdictions seek to promote environmental justice and ensure effective environmental adjudication;
consider the modes of judicial education on the environment in Asian jurisdictions and the experiences of development partners in strengthening the capacity of judges in Asia to decide environmental and natural resource cases;
share the work conducted under an ADB regional technical assistance project on environmental justice and adjudication; and
consider the need for an Asia Pacific Judges Network on the Environment.

Participants

Representatives from courts and civil society in Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, the United States, and Thailand, will share cutting edge experiences on the evolution of environmental jurisprudence and adjudication in their respective jurisdictions. Their sharing will be supported by key development partners including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United States Environmental Protection Agency, The Access Initiative, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Approach

This two‐day workshop of over 100 participants will build on the ongoing work of ADB under a regional technical assistance which seeks to improve implementation of environmental law in selected Asian countries by developing a roadmap for institutionalizing a system to strengthen the capacity of judges to apply environmental and natural resources law and regulation.

The symposium’s emphasis is improving environmental and natural resource decision making and adjudication within regional judiciaries, without assuming that any particular form or structure is the best way to achieve effective environmental decision‐making and adjudication in different country contexts. It will highlight environmental specialization within general courts, as well as exploring work done by specialist environmental courts, boards, and tribunals. Importantly, without drivers for increasing the demand for effective environmental judicial decision‐making from the judiciary, environmental judicial specializations could go unused. Hence, the symposium will look at demand‐side drivers, which will include the role of civil society in creating this demand, and also looking at other ways to institutionalize access to environmental justice in developing Asia.

Judges and key stakeholders will be asked to share their experiences in environmental adjudication and also, the challenges and needs that arise in doing their work. Given the many relevant issues, this year, the Symposium will emphasize an understanding of the drivers that led or are leading to progressive environmental jurisprudence and environmental adjudication, rather than focusing on specific technical legal issues. It will also seek to identify the ways of improving Asian judicial decision‐making and education to emphasize environmental and natural resource issues, the concrete needs of judges and other key stakeholders in building capacity to do so, and concrete actions to respond in those ways and to those needs. Judges and environmental officials will also discuss their need for further capacity building and whether an Asia Pacific Judges’ Network on the Environment should be established in conjunction with development partners to serve as forum for further capacity building and information exchange.

Output

The papers submitted during the conference will be recorded in an edited volume to serve as reference on regional and international environmental adjudication, including ECTs, to inform further work on environmental adjudication in Asia and the Pacific. To achieve this purpose, the first draft of papers will be needed by 21 July 2010.

Monday, 5 December 2011

18:00 - 20:30

Welcome Reception
Mandarin Hotel, hosted by Supreme Court of Indonesia