Transboundary Haze Pollution in Southeast Asia: The Effectiveness of Three Forms of International Legal Solutions

• Author: Kexian Ng
• Pages: 221-222

Transboundary Haze Pollution 221

X JEAIL 1 (2017)

Kexian Ng

∗

Every September and October, entities in the palm oil and timber industries in

Indonesia conduct slash-and-burn activities over peat land, causing transboundary

‘haze’ pollution. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of various legal solutions to

tackle the transboundary haze pollution. There are mainly three forms of international

law, customary international law, the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze

2002 and Singapore’s extraterritorial Transboundary Haze Pollution Act 2014. Their

effectiveness will be measured by Indonesia’s increasing willingness to take domestic

enforcement measures. This paper argues that the ASEAN Agreement is the primary

instrument despite its lack of sanctions as it is neutral, non-confrontational and

consistent with the ‘ASEAN way.’ The Singapore Act plays a complementary role,

yet its invocation may strain relations between Singapore and Indonesia. Ultimately,

the three forms of international law serve as a normative and facilitative source in

nudging Indonesia to take more stringent domestic enforcement measures.

Keywords

International Environmental Law, Transboundary Air Pollution, Southeast

Asia, Haze, Singapore, Indonesia, ASEAN

Transboundary Haze

Pollution in Southeast Asia:

The Effectiveness of Three

Forms of International

Legal Solutions

∗ LL.M. candidate (May 2017) at Columbia Law School; Advocate & Solicitor (Singapore); Solicitor (England/Wales);

LL.M. Representative and Executive Board Member of Columbia Society for International Law. LL.B. (Bristol).

ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9893-4888. The author wishes to thank Professor Lori Fisler Damrosch and Ms.

Susan Biniaz for their insightful comments during the preparation of this article. Any errors remain the author’s own.

The author may be contacted at: kexian.ng@gmail.com / Address: 67 Jalan Songket, S’537438, Singapore.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14330/jeail.2017.10.1.11

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