Pluralist Constitutions in Southeast Asia

This book examines how constitutional orders in individual Southeast Asian countries respond to a range of ethnic, political, and legal plurality in the respective countries. Specifically, it examines: (1) the pluralist constitutional values and ideas embodied in the constitutions; (2) the pluralist sources of constitutional norms; (3) the design of constitutional structure (including, election system, the separation of power, federation, and decentralization) to address plurality; and (4) the way the bill of rights (including the competing universal and contextual principles of constitutional rights, proportionality, and specific rights) are designed to respond to plurality. The countries covered in this book include ten ASEAN members, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.