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569 Investigating the Role of FOXA2 During the Transition to Neuroendocrine Prostate Cancer
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- Richard Garner, Nicholas Brady, Kate Dunmore, Richa Singh, Alyssa Bagadion, Andrea Sboner, Olivier Elemento, Brian Robinson, Himisha Beltran, David S. Rickman
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- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 8 / Issue s1 / April 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 03 April 2024, pp. 148-149
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OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of this project is to characterize the efficacy of FOXA2 as a potential biomarker for patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate adenocarcinoma (CRPC) before transitioning to neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC). NEPC currently has no therapeutic options and poor mechanistic understand of its origins. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: In our study, we have utilized a multi-omics approach to characterize the potential efficacy of FOXA2 as a prognostic biomarker in numerous patient-derived castrate-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) models. We have performed ATAC-, ChIP-, RNA-seq and proteomics to fully characterize where FOXA2 is binding genome-wide, how FOXA2 alters chromatin accessibility dynamics, identify regulatory gene targets of FOXA2, and identify FOXA2 protein-protein interactors. We have supported these findings using publicly available data from independent CRPC and NEPC patient cohorts and prostate cancer cell models. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Our findings show that FOXA2 overexpression suppressed androgen signaling and promoted progression to a NEPC phenotype under short- and long-term androgen deprivation conditions, respectively. Further, FOXA2 redirected the chromatin accessibility landscape to be consistent with an NEPC gene expression program, including increased chromatin accessibility for key NEPC transcription factors. FOXA2 ChIP-seq showed FOXA2 to be bound at known NEPC driver genes and epigenetic modifiers across multiple stages of prostate cancer progression. Lastly, we discovered that FOXA2 physically interacts with key NEPC TFs and epigenetic regulators, suggesting that these FOXA2 physical interactions are required for NEPC progression. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This project will determine the efficacy of FOXA2 as a biomarker in advanced prostatecancer samples, which will translate as a potentially useful tool for clinicians to use for treatment of advanced prostate cancer patients.
A community–university run conference as a catalyst for addressing health disparities in an urban community
- Timothy F. Murphy, Rita Hubbard Robinson, Kelly M. Wofford, Alan J. Lesse, Susan Grinslade, Henry L. Taylor, Jr., Kinzer M. Pointer, George F. Nicholas, Heather Orom
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- Journal of Clinical and Translational Science / Volume 6 / Issue 1 / 2022
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- 06 May 2022, e67
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The African American population of Buffalo, New York experiences striking race-based health disparities due to adverse social determinants of health. A team of community leaders and university faculty determined that a community dialogue was needed to focus research and advocacy on the root causes of these disparities. In response, we organized the annual Igniting Hope conference series that has become the premier conference on health disparities in the region. The series, now supported by an R13 conference grant from NCATS, has been held four times (2018–2021) and has attracted community members, community leaders, university faculty, and trainees. The agenda includes talks by national leaders and breakout/working groups that led to a new state law that has reduced disproportionate traffic-ticketing and drivers' license suspensions in Black neighborhoods; mitigation of the disproportionate COVID-19 fatalities in Black communities; and the launching of a university-supported institute. We describe the key elements of success for a conference series designed by a community–university partnership to catalyze initiatives that are having an impact on social determinants of health in Buffalo.
Examining the Vanishing Twin Hypothesis of Neural Tube Defects: Application of an Epigenetic Predictor for Monozygotic Twinning
- Jenny van Dongen, Scott D. Gordon, Veronika V. Odintsova, Allan F. McRae, Wendy P. Robinson, Judith G. Hall, Dorret I. Boomsma, Nicholas G. Martin
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- Journal:
- Twin Research and Human Genetics / Volume 24 / Issue 3 / June 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 July 2021, pp. 155-159
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Strong associations between neural tube defects (NTDs) and monozygotic (MZ) twinning have long been noted, and it has been suggested that NTD cases who do not present as MZ twins may be the survivors of MZ twinning events. We have recently shown that MZ twins carry a strong, distinctive DNA methylation signature and have developed an algorithm based on genomewide DNA methylation array data that distinguishes MZ twins from dizygotic twins and other relatives at well above chance level. We have applied this algorithm to published methylation data from five fetal tissues (placental chorionic villi, kidney, spinal cord, brain and muscle) collected from spina bifida cases (n = 22), anencephalic cases (n = 15) and controls (n = 19). We see no difference in signature between cases and controls, providing no support for a common etiological role of MZ twinning in NTDs. The strong associations therefore continue to await elucidation.
Arachidonic acid and DHA status in pregnant women is not associated with cognitive performance of their children at 4 or 6–7 years
- Sarah R. Crozier, Charlene M. Sibbons, Helena L. Fisk, Keith M. Godfrey, Philip C. Calder, Catharine R. Gale, Sian M. Robinson, Hazel M. Inskip, Janis Baird, Nicholas C. Harvey, Cyrus Cooper, Graham C. Burdge, Southampton Women’s Survey (SWS) Study Group
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- British Journal of Nutrition / Volume 119 / Issue 12 / 28 June 2018
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- 08 May 2018, pp. 1400-1407
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- 28 June 2018
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Arachidonic acid (ARA) and DHA, supplied primarily from the mother, are required for early development of the central nervous system. Thus, variations in maternal ARA or DHA status may modify neurocognitive development. We investigated the relationship between maternal ARA and DHA status in early (11·7 weeks) or late (34·5 weeks) pregnancy on neurocognitive function at the age of 4 years or 6–7 years in 724 mother–child pairs from the Southampton Women’s Survey cohort. Plasma phosphatidylcholine fatty acid composition was measured in early and late pregnancy. ARA concentration in early pregnancy predicted 13 % of the variation in ARA concentration in late pregnancy (β=0·36, P<0·001). DHA concentration in early pregnancy predicted 21 % of the variation in DHA concentration in late pregnancy (β=0·46, P<0·001). Children’s cognitive function at the age of 4 years was assessed by the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and at the age of 6–7 years by the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence. Executive function at the age of 6–7 years was assessed using elements of the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Neither DHA nor ARA concentrations in early or late pregnancy were associated significantly with neurocognitive function in children at the age of 4 years or the age of 6–7 years. These findings suggest that ARA and DHA status during pregnancy in the range found in this cohort are unlikely to have major influences on neurocognitive function in healthy children.
Executive summary
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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- ASEAN Environmental Legal Integration
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- 05 April 2016
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- 08 April 2016, pp 223-227
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Summary
The word “integration” means different things in different contexts. As this monograph is part of a series entitled Integration through Law: The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration (ITL) (see General Editors’ Preface), it examines the extent ASEAN environmental law contributes to ASEAN regional integration as an ASEAN community. ASEAN's historic transition, from an association in 1967 to its development into a community by December 31, 2015, has seen an evolution in various sectors, not least in environment.
The Introduction to the volume sets the scene, providing an overview of ASEAN and its efforts at regionalism. The history of colonization is noted, which explains the strong emphasis on Westphalian concepts of sovereignty and non-interference with domestic affairs. The efforts at regional integration in the context of the environment closely follow the global environmental movement, from the Stockholm Conference in 1972, to the Rio Conference in 1992 and Agenda 21, which prompted ASEAN's Strategic Plan of Action on the Environment and other initiatives. The ASEAN Way, which involves consensus, respect for the principle of sovereignty and non-intervention, and its challenges and evolution in the context of rapid economic and climatic changes and their deleterious impacts on the environment, are the subject of the chapters that follow.
Chapter 1, ASEAN and environmental sustainability, elaborates on the ASEAN vision of “One Caring and Sharing Community,” aspiring toward sustainable development as a common, uniting goal. It examines the difficulties of achieving the five-year plans of action, making the point that the ASEAN Way “makes for informality, quiet diplomacy, face saving and avoidance of legal instruments i.e. hard law.” However, some successes in hard law are mentioned, particularly the coming into effect of the ASEAN Transboundary Haze Agreement, with ratification by Indonesia, the last state to do so.
Chapter 2, Integrating sustainability into ASEAN state practice, discusses the importance of environmental governance and environmental management systems. The study finds that national environmental law regimes and governance are uneven across the ASEAN member states, and considerable capacity building is required. The issue of “integration through law” is examined from two perspectives – institutional integration and integration of laws and policies. It lauds the success in the stewardship of the region's terrestrial biological resources while noting the lack of concerted policies to safeguard marine natural resources.
3 - The environment in the ASEAN region
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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- ASEAN Environmental Legal Integration
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Evergreen tropical forests, mountain forests, monsoon forests, limestone and karst formations, wetlands, marine and coastal waters – these are among the major habitats or ecosystems found in Southeast Asia that store the world's largest collection of plant and animal life. These are life-giving resources for over half a billion people of the region and millions more around the world.
Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary-General3.1 Evaluating bio-geographic trends in the ASEAN region
Members of ASEAN share a common appreciation of nature in their customs, religious beliefs and social values. They also share the experiences of rapid urbanization and growing national populations. From 450 million in 1990, more than 622 million people live in ASEAN's ten countries in 2012, soon to be an estimated 650 million by 2020. Human population growth is most rapid in Indonesia (40 percent), the Philippines (17 percent) and Vietnam (16 percent), and the demands on environmental resources grow commensurately. All people among member states rely on the environment for their livelihoods, whether directly or indirectly. Despite disparities in levels of socio-economic development, with gross domestic product per person ranging from US$59,937 to US$1,327, member states collaborate to identify what is needed for environmental protection and the attainment of sustainable development. They cooperate through five-year planning cycles to build their capacity to provide environmental protection as a pillar for socio-economic development. Member states have made significant gains in building their capacity to be stewards of nature and natural resources, and to implement regionally their national obligations under multilateral environmental agreements and other environmental treaties. Nonetheless, as ASEAN's Secretary-General acknowledges:
The environmental performance of most ASEAN Member States, as assessed by reputable studies, is above the world average, and the ecological footprint is much lower than that of many nations. However, ASEAN will continue to face growing environmental challenges given the need to lift a third of its population earning less than $2 a day out of poverty, and the many other pressures exerted on the environment such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization.
Law provides both a significant foundation and an effective procedure for ASEAN member states as they pursue intergovernmental environmental cooperation. The ASEAN Way encourages the sharing of goals and agreement by consensus on a phased pacing of capacity building for environmental stewardship, as discussed in Chapter 5 of this study.
Frontmatter
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Contents
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Index
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Appendix B - Founding of ASEAN – a short history
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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From the ASEAN web page: www.asean.org/asean/about-asean/history
On August 8, 1967, five leaders – the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand – sat down together in the main hall of the Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed a document. By virtue of that document, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was born. The five Foreign Mini sters who signed it – Adam Malik of Indonesia, Narciso R. Ramos of the Philippines, Tun Abdul Razak of Malaysia, S. Rajaratnam of Singapore and Thanat Khoman of Thailand – would subsequently be hailed as the Founding Fathers of probably the most successful intergovernmental organization in the developing world today. And the document that they signed would be known as the ASEAN Declaration.
It was a short, simply-worded document containing just five articles. It declared the establishment of an Association for Regional Cooperation among the Countries of Southeast Asia to be known as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and spelled out the aims and purposes of that Association. These aims and purposes were about cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter. It stipulated that the Association would be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes. It proclaimed ASEAN as representing “the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity.”
It was while Thailand was brokering reconciliation among Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia over certain disputes that it dawned on the four countries that the moment for regional cooperation had come or the future of the region would remain uncertain. Recalls one of the two surviving protagonists of that historic process, Thanat Khoman of Thailand: “At the banquet marking the reconciliation between the three disputants, I broached the idea of forming another organization for regional cooperation with Adam Malik. Malik agreed without hesitation but asked for time to talk with his government and also to normalize relations with Malaysia now that the confrontation was over.
1 - ASEAN and environmental sustainability
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aspires to be a neighborhood where richly diverse nations can attain common purposes by cooperating together in consensual and graduated steps. It proposes and posits “One Vision, One Identity, and One Caring and Sharing Community” as the uniting common ground. Composed of ten sovereign states, ASEAN has at its core an international legal framework, through which it shapes its steps toward a shared vision. The goal of sustainable development, as articulated through the UN Conference on Environment and Development, is a central vision shared by each ASEAN member state.
ASEAN cooperation on common policies and laws for the environment and development emerged through agreeing on topics of common concern, preparing draft programs that include capacity-building measures to ensure that each member state is ready to collaborate further, followed by the preparation of draft “soft law” policy declarations vetted through the appropriate governmental levels (civil service, ministers or heads of state). The soft law provides the basis for adopting congruent national laws and regulations to further a common ASEAN approach. In the environmental arena, this is well illustrated by the ASEAN biodiversity programs and the system of protected natural heritage areas.
The ASEAN Way builds confidence and avoids conflict among the member states. These goals are fundamental. War in Indochina raged through much of the twentieth century. As Principles 25 and 26 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development proclaim, “Warfare is inherently destructive of sustainable development. States shall therefore respect international law providing protection for the environment in times of armed conflict and cooperate in its further development, as necessary … Peace, development and environmental protection are interdependent and indivisible.” ASEAN member states have identified cooperation in the field of environmental protection to be a common priority. Each has acknowledged the objective of sustainable development, as formulated by Agenda 21. Each is at a different point along the pathway to making development sustainable.
ASEAN perspectives on environmental sustainability cannot be separated from the history of each member state. Except for Thailand, each was colonized by states from outside the region. This left a legacy of civil law (with the Dutch, French or Spanish variants) and common law (with the British or American variants) and a legacy of Islamic legal principles and more recently socialist law principles, in the various states comprising ASEAN.
List of tables
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Introduction: exploring environmental law in Southeast Asia
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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The environmental performance of most ASEAN Member States, as assessed by reputable studies, is above the world average, and the ecological footprint is much lower than that of many nations. However, ASEAN will continue to face growing environmental challenges given the need to lift a third of its population earning less than $2 a day out of poverty, and the many other pressures exerted on the environment such as population growth, urbanization and industrialization.
Dr. Surin Pitsuwan, ASEAN Secretary-GeneralEnvironment is sans frontières. Many of the current or emerging environmental problems are transnational and transboundary, necessitating legal integration, whether in the form of hard or soft laws, programs, policies or governance innnovations, such as ASEAN Dialogue Partners, or the United Nations Environment Programme consultations. All these are crucial to ASEAN.
ASEAN is part of the global order for environmental sustainability. It is a partner of the United Nations in the field of development. As the 1971 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment and the 1992 “Earth Summit” at Rio De Janiero have made clear, we the peoples of the United Nations and of ASEAN alike, share one world, one atmosphere, one stratosphere. ASEAN's economic pillar requires integration to move Southeast Asia forward, and environment must move in tandem to prevent degradation of ecosystems for development to be sustainable regionally and globally.
This monograph examines the phenomenon of “integration through law” (ITL), or more particularly how the member states of ASEAN employ law as a means of regional integration, focusing in particular on how this process functions in the context of environmental conservation and sustainable development. The several chapters trace ASEAN's struggles to integrate environment within its own community and also with the global community. There are many concerns, not only in terms of the lack of institutional capacity and funding, but in the very nature of environmental problems. The environmental sciences have taught nations how complicated and interrelated human impacts are on the climate or ecosystems. States are left grappling with solutions. The search for environmentally sustainable progress is an ongoing, adaptive process, often without clear, immediate answers. This complexity is compounded by too many inputs that national sectors receive from diverse interdisciplinary studies, without any governance system to connect them.
2 - Integrating sustainability into ASEAN state practice
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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ASEAN is not only a well-functioning indispensable reality in the region. It is a real force to be reckoned with far beyond the region. It is also a trusted partner of the United Nations in the field of development.
Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (February 16, 2000)Since the United Nations General Assembly accepted the Report from the World Commission on Environment and Development, entitled Our Common Future (1987), environmentally sustainable development has evolved to become a central theme for ASEAN. The documentation of this evolutionary progress appears in ASEAN Environmental Law, Policy and Governance: Selected Documents compiled by Koh Kheng-Lian. This body of state practice is substantial. The key measures that illustrate patterns of integration through law (ITL) have been usefully analyzed and collected into two readily available compendia – the first volume, Part I, “Setting the Stage for ASEAN Environmental Cooperation, Harmonization, and Integration” and Part II, “General Legal Frameworks on the Environment,” which contains ASEAN documents on environmental law. These environmental legal instruments appear not only in the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Blueprint (also known as the Third Pillar) but across the ASEAN Political Security Community Blueprint (also known as the First Pillar). Volume I also includes documents setting forth ASEAN's environmental Programmes, Strategies, Plans of Action and Blueprints, as well as Declarations, Resolutions and Accords. The second volume focuses on specific sectors such as terrestrial ecosystems – natural resources and biodiversity; coastal and marine environment; water resources management; health and environment; energy and climate change; disaster management; environmental education; and ASEAN environmental governance. Both volumes should be considered companions to the commentaries in this monograph.
It is beyond the scope of this study to address each of the many ASEAN environmental decision-making processes that constitute environmental law, policy and governance in ASEAN. This monograph will selectively reference ASEAN decision-making documents where relevant to an analysis of the rule of law in ASEAN integration, from an environmental law perspective. It should be noted that not all areas that need environmental integration are as yet amenable to integration for reasons of politics, sensitivity of issues, lack of knowledge and capacity, or other reasons.
Evaluating how environmental law functions in the context of ASEAN “integration” can be challenging because the realm of the environment is all encompassing.
4 - Environmental sustainability laws in the ASEAN member states
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Summary
A review of the national environmental legislation in each ASEAN member state illustrates that ASEAN displays both centrifugal and disparate tendencies in legal integration. ASEAN cooperation seeks harmonization and integration to facilitate steps toward region-wide environmental sustainability. However, individual states are driven by their historical and developmental legacies; priorities for ASEAN's sustainability are not always the same for national leaders. Most have not attained the recommended actions described in Agenda 21 to be considered sustainable societies, much less a model for sustainable development. Because of limitations in development state economies, problems with corruption and insufficient expertise, among other challenges, it may be unrealistic to assess legal integration in ASEAN solely from a classical model of international law. Conversely, if ASEAN member states chose to do so, the international environmental law agreements to which they are members provide them with many cooperative tools and legal frameworks for resolving environmental problems and attaining sustainable development. ASEAN could collaborate with its member states to avail themselves of such opportunities.
As sovereign states, international law regards each as equal, but as geographic countries, each has unique ecological challenges that differ substantially from state to state. Hence, national and sub-national environmental laws, and implementation of those laws, can be expected to vary greatly. Like all nations, the ASEAN member states may have enacted comparable bodies of environmental legislation through national law, and each may be a member of the various international treaties and multinational environmental agreements, but their capacity to implement treaty obligations also varies greatly. This reality is illustrated by a selective survey of some of the environmental legal issues in different ASEAN member states.
4.1 Southeast Asian legal systems and constitutions
With the establishment of colonies and protectorates in the region by Great Britain during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar and Singapore came to inherit common law from the British legal system during their colonial rule. From their French colonial rule, the Indochinese countries (Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia) acceded to a civil law system, though administered with socialist law since gaining their independence. Indonesia practices a civil law system based on a Roman-Dutch model influenced by customary (adat) law, while the legal system in the Philippines is a blend of civil law and common law from its Spanish and American rule, though common law is dominant.
Acknowledgments
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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6 - ASEAN and climate disruption
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Summary
Climate change may be one issue in which bottom-up demands and initiatives could force reluctant governments to act. In any case, the problem cannot be solved unless each one of us is willing to take ownership of the problem and do our little bit to reduce our carbon footprint. Therefore, we should not allow the elusive post-Kyoto agreement to stop us from doing the right thing. The future of the Earth and of human civilization depends upon each of us.
Ambassador and Professor Tommy KohClimate disruption will complicate ASEAN's efforts to build sustainable development across all its member states. The impacts will either be a force for strengthening environmental safeguards needed to cope with climate change and thus enhance legal integration through ASEAN, or the disruptions will have a disintegration effect, reducing states to reliance on their own internal systems, however lacking they may be. The case studies in Chapter 5 suggest that it will be through cooperation and greater integration that the region can best cope. Whether integration through law (ITL) will in fact advance remains to be seen. The dynamics affecting decisions about ITL in the context of responding to climate change can be examined through examining how climate change will affect natural biological resources of Southeast Asia.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the impacts of climate change for biodiversity resources in the ASEAN region are projected to be serious. Climate change will exacerbate the many factors that are already endangering biodiversity in the region. A significant number of the region's population remains in poverty, many subsisting mainly on the uninterrupted use of biological natural resources, the losses of which are increasing progressively. Climate change impacts buttress one another: climate change exacerbates poverty and accelerates biodiversity loss; poverty sequentially compels the poor to exploit the environment unsustainably. Degraded environments, in return, intensify poverty and hasten climate change. The bottom line is that if deforestation in the region continues at its current rate, Southeast Asia stands to lose up to three-quarters of its forests and up to 42 percent of its biodiversity by 2100.
How each ASEAN member state responds to the challenges of climate change will measure the success or failure of its socio-economic development. Previously agreed objectives for sustainable development must be recast in light of the changing physical conditions across Southeast Asia.
Appendix A - ASEAN organizational structure relevant to the environment – the ASEAN Charter
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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7 - Conclusions: ASEAN's challenging way forward
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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Summary
In a region as vast and diverse as ASEAN is in its political, legal, cultural and social systems, it is not surprising that national interests often take precedence over regional interests. It must be recognized that national priorities for the alleviation of poverty in member states take precedence over what many still perceive to be lofty ideals of environmental sustainability. Most political and economic leaders do not yet accept “sustainable development,” however short-sighted that may be. Many new and emerging environmental problems have left policy makers in ASEAN, like the rest of the world, wrestling with how best to tackle these issues. These uncertainties are compounded by other factors that come into play, such as the repeated financial crises that may prevent environment-related decisions from moving forward. It also takes time to change deep-seated mindsets of policy makers and other stakeholders in regard to environmental issues.
While ASEAN has progressed at a pace that is comfortable for all states in the region, in an organic, evolutionary way, the environment lacks such luxury of time. Environmental disruption is growing across ASEAN, and climate change and other environmental disasters call into question the gradualist approach that has characterized ASEAN's past patterns of integration through law.
A more integrated, cohesive ASEAN can emerge from ASEAN's people-to-people approach of those who “think ASEAN.” This evolved ASEAN Way would reflect consensus in favor of rapid development of action plans and collaboration. It would recognize that the region has a need to care for ASEAN as an integrated community, with shared values and a common vision.
At present this vision is not a reality, but a long-term goal, and ASEAN continues to reiterate the importance of environmental cooperation (as in other areas) to achieve its vision as it does in the Bangkok Resolution on ASEAN Environmental Cooperation 2012. While it has not been achieved much hope lies in ASEAN young people. ASEAN is actively engaging youth in the region to promote ASEAN identity through cultural heritage and other methods such as environmental education to impart knowledge and awareness. To that end, ASEAN has adopted an ASEAN Environmental Education Action Plan. For ASEAN to realize its vision, there must be a change of mindset that no longer considers integration as interference in internal affairs, in the traditional sense.
General editors’ preface
- Koh Kheng-Lian, National University of Singapore, Nicholas A. Robinson, Pace University, New York, Lye Lin-Heng, National University of Singapore
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This monograph is published within the context of a wide-ranging research project entitled Integration Through Law: The Role of Law and the Rule of Law in ASEAN Integration (ITL), undertaken by the Centre for International Law at the National University of Singapore and directed by J. H. H. Weiler and Tan Hsien-Li.
The Preamble to the ASEAN Charter concludes with a single decision: “We, the Peoples of the Member States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations … [h]ereby decide to establish, through this Charter, the legal and institutional framework for ASEAN.” For the first time in its history of over four decades, the Legal and the Institutional were brought to the forefront of ASEAN discourse.
The gravitas of the medium, a Charter: the substantive ambition of its content, the creation of three interlocking Communities, and the turn to law and institutions as instruments for realization provide ample justification for this wide-ranging project, to which this monograph is one contribution, examining ASEAN in a comparative context.
That same substantive and, indeed, political ambition means that any single study, illuminating as it may be, will cover but a fraction of the phenomena. Our modus operandi in this project was to create teams of researchers from Asia and elsewhere who would contribute individual monographs within an overall framework which we had designed. The project framework, involving several thematic clusters within each monograph, is thus determined by the framework and the place of each monograph within it.
As regards the specific content, however, the authors were free, indeed encouraged, to define their own understanding of the problem and their own methodology and reach their own conclusions. The thematic structure of the entire project may be found at the end of this Preface.
The project as a whole, and each monograph within it, display several methodological sensibilities.
First, law, in our view, can only be understood and evaluated when situated in its political and economic context. Thus, the first studies in the overall project design are intended to provide the political, economic, cultural and historical context against which one must understand ASEAN and are written by specialists in these respective disciplines. This context, to a greater or lesser degree, also informs the sensibility of each monograph.