ASEAN Consumer Law Harmonisation and Cooperation Achievements and Challenges

This is the first Western-language research monograph detailing significant developments in consumer law and policy across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), underpinned by a growing middle class and implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community from 2016. Eight chapters examine consumer law topics within ASEAN member states (such as product safety and consumer contracts) and across them (financial and health services), as well as the interface with competition law and the nature of ASEAN as a unique and evolving international organisation. The authors include insights from extensive fieldwork, partly through consultancies for the ASEAN Secretariat, to provide a reliable, contextual and up-to-date analysis of consumer law and policy development across the region. The volume also draws on and contributes to theories of law and development in multiple fields, including comparative law, political economy and regional studies.

1. Introduction: backdrop and overarching perspectives; 2. Theoretical perspectives on ASEAN and consumer law developments; 3. Product safety law: fragmented regulation and emergent product liability regimes; 4. Regulating consumer contracts in ASEAN: variation and change; 5. Consumer financial services: what role for ASEAN?; 6. Professional health services: ASEAN's trade liberalisation agenda; 7. Integration with competition policies, laws and institutions: opportunities for ASEAN consumer protection; 8. Key reflections and future directions.

Luke Nottage is Associate Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney. His previous books include works on ASEAN product safety law, and consumer law in Australia and New Zealand. Luke has consulted for law firms and international organisations, including the ASEAN Secretariat.
Justin Malbon is an Adjunct Professor at Griffith University, Australia. He is a former Professor at the Monash University Law School. He has published across a wide range of topics, including consumer law, international trade, intellectual property and the legal rights of Indigenous peoples.
Jeannie Paterson specialises in contracts, consumer protection and consumer credit law, as well as the role of technological change in these contexts. She writes and consults widely in these areas.
Caron Beaton-Wells is Co-Director of the Global Competition and Consumer Law Program and Director of the Competition Law & Economics Network at the University of Melbourne. She is regarded as Australia's leading academic in this field, is extensively published and has been invited to speak at numerous international conferences.