The Impact of Public International Law in the Commercial Sphere and Its Significance to Asia

Over the last three decades, public international law has undergone a dramatic transformation. It has now entered the arena of mainstream law in what some have referred to as the privatisation of public international law. This article offers thoughts on the implications for the Asian legal community arising from this, and suggests that there is a pressing need for the Asian legal community to be intensely interested and engaged in this area, especially because norms of international law are increasingly being created by private individuals exercising the treaty interpretive function. Just as the developments in public international law have important implications for the Asian legal community, the rise of Asia has important implications for public international law.