ABSTRACT
In order to realize the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) single market through free channels for capital investment in ASEAN, the member states have unanimously agreed an ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement (ACIA), which was signed in Cha-Am (Thailand) on 26 February 2009. According to ACIA Article 1(a) in correlation with purpose of formation, the agreement comprises a legal concept for foreign investment, a free-open investment regime in ASEAN to attain the final result of economic integrity in ASEAN economic society. The establishment of economic society will give the chance to member states to expand the scope of economic scale, improve tourist and investor interests, reduce costs of trading transactions, and restore business and trading facilities in accordance with the welfare state concept, Utilitarianism, as initiated by Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832). Historically, the idea of the welfare state is an expansion of classical or liberal legal state concepts, termed nachtwächterstaat (night-watchman state) by Immanuel Kant. Utilitarianism is an ideology providing an economic basis to legal thought. The purpose is massive welfare for the majority of people entirely, and the legal evaluation arranged by the consequences of legal implementation process. According to the welfare state concept, the existence of investment liberalization in ASEAN for economic society is an attempt to improve and realize welfare in the member states of ASEAN, through legislation. Finally, as the rules that have been agreed by the states, it must be implemented in tactical phases for the welfare of ASEAN society.
