The Research On The Legal Governance Mode Of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area

On the November 20th in 2007, the leaders of ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed in the 13 th ASEAN summit meeting held in Singapore. In the past 40 years since the establishment of ASEAN, is the first document which is binding upon all the members. It has established ASEAN's objectives, principles, status and organizational structure, endowed ASEAN with the international legal personality, and provided a legal framework to ASEAN for the change of its loose status, the improvement of its decision-making efficiency and the formation of a binding regional organization. It has also revealed ASEAN's determination of marching forward the goal of "advanced integration". From the principle provisions which deal with disputes between members and regulate the relations between members in the Charter, we can see that ASEAN Charter still emphasizes the inheritance and maintenance of the regional governance mode of "ASEAN Way". The author thinks that "ASEAN Way" is one primary soft law governance mode of the regional legal governance modes.On the January 1st in 2010, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is founded formally. In the background of regional economic cooperation being a major trend of the development of the world economy, China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has become the main pillar of pushing forward the economic contact between China and ASEAN, and increasing the political trust between China and ASEAN. Therefore, the strengthening of the research on the issues about China-ASEAN Free Trade Area is very important for China. To the development of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the perfection of its legal system is of crucial importance, and then the legal adjusting mode is the essential content of the perfection of Free Trade Area's legal system. This thesis tries to put forward some views on the choice of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area's legal governance mode on the basis of the research on its legal situation and the obstacles existing in the adjustment process of its legal governance mode.This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part describes and the legal governance mode of ASEAN. It introduces ASEAN Charter's issued background, objectives, content, and inheritance and maintenance of "ASEAN way" principle. And then this part starts with the theory related to the legal governance mode of regional integration, and infers ASEAN's legal governance mode at the present stage and its possible legal governance mode in the future. The second part mainly overviews the legal system of China-ASEAN Free Trade. It introduces the legal status of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, and the main obstacles existing in the adjustment process of its legal governance mode. The third part is the core of this thesis which prospects the legal governance mode of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area. In accordance with the situation of the legal governance mode of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and ASEAN listed above, this part puts forward author's views on the future of the basic principles of its regional legal governance and its legal governance mode.