Cambodia's tryst with international law

• Main Author: MOHAN, Mahdev
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Cambodia; Asia; international law; international courts; Khmer Rouge; human rights law; international criminal law; investment treaty; Preah Vihear temple; South China Sea; Asian Studies; International Law; Transnational Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3743; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99314904902601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20Oxford%20Handbook%20of%20International%20Law%20in%20Asia%20and%20the%20Pacific&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter studies international law in Cambodia. Cambodia’s evolving relationship with public international law must be understood in the context of the nation’s unique history and circumstances, which are marked by colonization, conflict, Vietnamese occupation, territorial administration, civil war, transitional justice, and state-building. Cambodia’s legal system has undergone significant changes from the early days of unwritten customary laws, to the imposition of French civil law, and thereafter the ‘legal vacuum’ created by the ultra-Marxist Khmer Rouge regime that left Cambodia in a state of war and international isolation until the 1980s. The chapter then outlines key aspects of international law in and apropos Cambodia that illustrate Cambodia’s reception of public international law, and its position as an active participant in the international legal system. Cambodia has certainly taken strides in its participation in dispute resolution on the international plane. However, its tryst with international law is a fractious one.