This book focuses on the legal systems of the late-developing countries of ASEAN (Cambodia
Laos Myanmar and Vietnam often referred to as the CLMV countries). These nations are apt to
be placed in an economically disadvantageous situation within the opportunity of
communalization of legal systems being advanced by the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) launched
in 2015 and the book clarifies the dynamics of the changes within these legal systems.
Concurrently there is an intention to analyze the ¿legal system development support¿ that has
continued to be provided to these countries since the mid-1990s via international development
support from international organizations and developed countries including Japan. In particular
the emphasis has been on the area of civil law where the main subject of Japan¿s support has
been centered on the civil code and civil procedure code. The legal system of the recipient
country is complicated by the crisscrossing of the remnants of previous eras from the inherent
laws that have existed since before colonization the laws of the colonial powers that were
introduced during the colonial era (French law in Cambodia Laos and Vietnam English law in
Myanmar) the influence of socialist law after independence from colonization and the path of
modern industrialization and development such that one country's legal system is the
combination of all of these influences. For the reader to understand the dynamics of these
changing laws each chapter of the book combines two methodological perspectives. The first is
to ascertain the spatial range as to how far the civil law extends across social phenomena. The
second is a historical perspective in which the trends in legal changes will be understood on a
time axis.
