ABSTRACT
The cultural practices, 'Asian values', at the heart of the public international law controversy are a legal amalgam, a fusion created once the expansion of commerce requires the reformulation of the domestic legal order. The purpose of the Asian Meeting of Ministers was to arrive at a common regional position regarding the validity and enforcement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The debate over the relationship between capitalism and human rights translates into public international law arenas as a conflict between universal human rights and domestic sovereignty. To ensure that human rights could be effectively exercised by previously colonized peoples, the solution was that newly-formed states would act as proxies for the people. The political actors who take the position that globalization is not equivalent to colonialism typically emanate from the geopolitically most powerful countries. This chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
