Legal Hedging: International Law Strategies by Peripheral States

Abstract

The panel addresses the question of“What is‘culture’ and what role does it play in international law and the engagement of Asia-Pacific States with the international legal system?” Part of my research focuses on secondary states in the Asia-Pacific, that is, states who are not the major power players in the international legal order. The research makes three claims. First, peripheral states, by virtue of historical experience and a deep awareness of their non-dominant natures, hold fundamentally different vision and use of international law from big powers. Second, one way that peripheral states exercise this different vision of international law is what I call“legal hedging,” which pays homage to the rich international relations literature on hedging pioneered by, among others, scholars Cheng Chwee Kuik and Evelyn Goh. Finally, to speak to the diversity of Asian states, both democratic and non-democratic states can adopt legal hedging strategies, albeit in different ways that reflect individual countries’ historical, ideological, and domestic concerns.