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5 Sing. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 284 (2001)
The Asian Perspective to International Law in the Age of Globalization

handle is hein.journals/singa5 and id is 294 raw text is: Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law (2001) 5 pp 284 - 313 The Asian Perspective to International Law in the Age of Globalization M Sornarajah* I. INTRODUCTION THE Asian perspective to international law was the result of a shared experience of colonialism of the Asian people.' It was born of an arduous struggle in the twentieth century to throw off the yoke of colonialism, shared by all Asian people. China and Thailand did not experience colonialism but the system of extraterritoriality2 which was imposed upon them through force generated sufficient resentment against colonial powers to ensure that they too shared the historical experience of hurt that other Asian states felt. Colonialism was maintained through force that was buttressed by the shaping of an international law that justified subjugation of the peoples of Asia and Africa. There was an innate racial superiority evidenced by notions relating to the standards of civilisation. This enabled the differential treatment of Asian peoples under international law.3 Colonialism has been dismantled. The * LLM (Yale) PhD LLD (London), Professor of Law, National University of Singapore. 1 Ram Prakash Anand (ed), Asian States and The Development of Universal International Law (Vikas Publications, New Delhi, 1972). 2 Extraterritoriality in this sense meant the creation of enclaves for Europeans within states like China in which the application of Chinese law was excluded and the law of the home states of the Europeans was used instead. These laws were administered by specially set up consular courts. 3 The political philosophers of the age regarded Asians and Africans as intellectual inferiors upon whom the imposition of a colonial system was justified. There are loathsomely racist passages in their writings. Thus Hume stated 'I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation.' Hume, Essays Moral and Political (1753). Kant stated that 'the negroes of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling'. Yet, Kant and Hume are held up as the great rationalist thinkers of their period. Some modern international lawyers have revived Kant to provide the impetus for their vision of a democratic peace. (1 thank Professor CL Ten of the Department of Philosophy, National University of Singapore for letting me read his unpublished paper, 'Hume's Racism and Miracles' from which the quotes in this footnote are taken. His paper is to be published in the Journal of Value Inquiry).

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