Journal of Information, Law and Technology
Access to Legal Information in Cambodia: Initial
Steps, Future Possibilities
Daniel Adler
Community Legal Education Center, Phnom Penh
adler_dan@yahoo.com
This is a refereed article published on: 30 January 2006.
Citation: Adler, 'Access to Legal Information in Cambodia: Initial Steps, Future
Possibilities’, 2005 (2) The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT).
< http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/law/elj/jilt/2005_2/adler/>
Abstract
Following a brief review of the literature on access to legal information (particularly
in electronic form), the author finds a lack of empirical research on the relationship
between access to legal information and the establishment of the rule of law,
particularly in developing countries. Using the example of Cambodia this article
considers why the publication of legal information has been so difficult in the past. It
then provides a case study of a new tribunal (a council for the arbitration of labour
disputes) which is taking steps to publicize its decisions online and reflects on the
effects which the distribution of such information may be having on the conduct of
industrial relations in Cambodia. Finally the article undertakes an assessment of the
extent to which the model established by the Arbitration Council could be used as a
basis for the development of legal publishing in Cambodia.
Keywords: Cambodia, rule of law, online publication of legal information.
1. Introduction
The literature on the impact of access to law online is full of promise for countries
where liberal democracy and the rule of law are works in progress. Thus for example
Legal Information Institute founder, Peter Martin, states that ‘efforts to make the law
more accessible, more understandable, (and) more clearly expressed are ultimately
efforts to make law more effective and in a democracy more accountable and
responsive’ (2001, p.5). Even more assertive is Takato Natsui of the SHIP (Social,
Human and Information Platform) Project who claims that ‘the degree of public
presentation of legal information can be a barometer of whether a specific country is
law governed or not’ (2001, p.49).
Though sympathetic to the assumptions of Martin, Natsui and company, I am
somewhat disappointed that a review of the literature does not reveal more cohesive
arguments to back their claims, particularly in the context of those countries which
have most at stake; transitional societies where democracy is new, governance is
fragile and the hold of the rule of law is weak. On the contrary, a significant body of
scholarship which examines attempts to promote legal and judicial reform in the
developing world requires critical engagement with the assumption that development
of certain laws or institutional forms will automatically deliver “the rule of law.” 1
The strongest arguments on the relationships between online access to legal
information, democracy and the rule of law seem to be historical and theoretical rather
than empirical. One such historical argument comes from Martin who finds that
‘communication has been central to the law’ from the earliest times. He then proceeds
to track what are described as profound changes in the legal process as new
technology has been co-opted in the communication of law.2 Martin’s thesis is that
because law relies so strongly on communication for its efficacy, the adoption of more
efficient means of communicating law (both to the citizens and between institutions of
government) improves the strength of the rule of law itself. Further, with its potential
to extend law to the people, Martin (1999, p.188) sees the internet as overcoming the
inequality of print based communication which played into the hands of an elite group
of legal experts.
Though the focus of Martin’s work has been on the transformation of developed legal
systems3 as they move from print to electronic communication, this scholarship is
informative for the current study of access to legal information in Cambodia because
it establishes a relationship between the ways in which societies think about law and
the technology they use in its operation and distribution. In a country like Cambodia,
however, which has only the most basic infrastructure for the print based distribution
of legal information, the possibilities of online access to law raise their own distinct
possibilities and challenges.4
Addressing those possibilities and challenges this paper will consider the roots of the
problem of access to law in Cambodia; examine previous attempts by the Royal
Government and others to overcome it; and, taking the recent establishment of an
arbitration tribunal for labour disputes as a case study, it will examine some of the
issues which arise if online systems are considered as a model for tackling the
problems of legal information. The empirical basis for this paper is derived from a
review of relevant literature, unstructured interviews with key informants, and
reflections based on the author’s experience working at a Cambodian non-government
organization with a focus on justice sector reform. As such the paper should be read
as a ‘note from the field’ rather than an attempt at scientifically rigorous empirical
research.
The paper commences with an overview of the situation with regard to access to
information in Cambodia.
2. Access to Information in Cambodia – An Overview
Emerging from more than two decades of civil war, establishing and strengthening
legal and judicial institutions has been a priority for Royal Government of Cambodia
since the promulgation of the current constitution in 1993. This commitment is
reflected in the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC)’s Rectangular Strategy for
Growth, Employment, Equity and Efficiency in Cambodia (2004) which states that the
development of the rule of law is a crucial element of the RGC’s efforts to promote
good governance. Similarly, the national Legal and Judicial Reform Strategy adopted
in June 2003 stresses the importance of the legal and judicial sector in upholding the
rule of law by “ensuring effective access to justice for all” (RGC, 2003, p.6).
The same Legal and Judicial Reform Strategy provides that “free access to
information (…) as a fundamental prerequisite for the functioning of a liberal
democracy,” and that “access to information [will] only [be] restricted in accordance
with the law and when it is deemed necessary in a democratic society.” Despite this
on paper commitment to a free flow of information access to even the most
fundamental of public documents remains problematic in Cambodia. Though
provision is made for all laws and regulations to be published in the form of an
Official Gazette, this record is neither complete, nor is it published on a regular basis
(Rubacki & Sagi, 2004).
Court hearings in both civil and criminal cases are generally open to the public though
judges do have a power to close criminal hearings at the request of the victim (Art, 23
UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia) Criminal Law (1992)).
In practice, however, judges order the closure of hearings at their discretion.5 Though
there is no law restricting access to court judgments, they are not publically available
in any form, nor are they available for third parties to inspect through the court
registries.
With regard to internal documents of the executive such as policy papers, draft laws
or directives, a legal officer at the Cambodian Council of Ministers pointed out in
discussion with the author that “Cambodia has no law on the classification of such
documents. If people want to get access to a document then we need to follow
informal procedures. If I am not sure whether to give the document, then I will ask my
boss; if he is not sure then he will ask his boss; and so it goes until someone can
decide yes or no.”6
3. Specific Problems in Access to Legal Information
There are a number of obstacles which face any lawyer, academic, policy maker or
concerned citizen who wants to get access to legal information relating to Cambodia.
Some of these problems will be familiar to practitioners in other countries, others are
peculiarly Cambodian. They include:
1. A diversity of law making bodies: Unlike many civil law countries where
comprehensive codes are enacted, most Cambodian laws provide only a
framework of policies and principles which leave the detailed law making to
be completed by executive regulations. These regulations may be made either
by the Royal Government (Anukret) or by individual ministries (Prakas) but in
either case there is no requirement that such regulation be submitted to or
approved by parliament. This leads to competition between regulatory and
administrative bodies each of which will try to assert its authority over a field
of law. Taking an example from the Cambodian Labour Law, Chapter VIII
places a broad duty on employers to maintain a healthy and safe workforce,
but provides few further details. Executive regulations which impact on
workplace health and safety are issued by bodies including, The Council of
Ministers, The Ministry of Social Affairs, Labour, Vocational Training and
Youth Rehabilitation, The Ministry of Health, The Ministry of Environment,
and The Ministry of Industry.
2. Publication of laws intermittent, incomplete and un-indexed: Though
Article 13 of the Law on the Organization and Functioning of the Council of
Ministers (1994) provides that “all norms and standards with general effect
must be published in the Official Gazette” the publication of Cambodian laws
is intermittent, incomplete and poorly distributed. This problem is
compounded by the fact that the 1993 Constitution expressly saves laws which
were made under previous regimes, arguably including laws from the preKhmer Rouge period. For these reasons there is no definitive collection of
Cambodian laws currently in force. Finding a law then requires the researcher
to visit such Ministries as one might assume regulate the field of interest.
Continuing the example of occupational health and safety regulation from the
previous paragraph; such regulations are not published in any indexed form,
thus researcher wishing to compile a comprehensive collection of law relating
to workplace health and safety would need to contact no fewer than 5 public
authorities, none of which would necessarily have complete or up-to-date
collections of even their own regulations on the subject matter.
3. Court judgments and other important legal documents are not made public:
While laws and regulations are at least in principle public documents, the
same cannot be said about Cambodian court judgments. Court documents are
not published in any regular way, and requests from researchers or lawyers for
judgments are inevitably rebuffed unless the researcher has connections within
the court system. The situation with regard to other official legal documents
such as draft laws, policy papers, and administrative decisions is similarly
bleak.
4. Previous Attempts to Tackle the Problem
In the 12 years since Cambodia made its formal transition to liberal democracy there
have been a number of attempts to address the issue of access to legal information. I
will now proceed to provide a brief overview of each of these efforts together with an
analysis of why they are less than entirely satisfactory.
1. The Official Gazette (Rijekec): The Official Gazette is the official organ for
publishing law in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Publication in the Official
Gazette is considered to satisfy the publication requirement under the Law on
the Organization and Functioning of the Council of Ministers. The Gazette has
been described as “a poor quality publication” with production methods which
are “archaic by modern standards.” (Rubacki & Sagi, 2004). The coverage of
the Official Gazette is seen as being comprehensive in terms of laws and
regulations of the Royal Government (those issued by the Council of
Ministers). However, as Cambodia lacks a reliable system for the
centralization and compilation of legal instruments issued by the various
Ministries, these are often not published in the Gazette. This leads to a
situation whereby even the central government may have difficulty in
ascertaining the law on a particular subject.
2. UNDP project to compile tri-lingual database of laws: The UNDP funded a
project together with the Council of Ministers to compile Cambodian laws on
a CDROM database. This database is useful as it is searchable and contains a
relatively comprehensive selection of laws and regulations in Khmer (with
many English and French translations). However, the project was unsuccessful
in developing a model for its sustainability. Funding ceased in 1998 and the
database has not been updated since then.
3. World Bank funded Journal and Council of Jurists (Legal Reform Unit)
Website: From 1999 - 2001, the World Bank funded journal of Cambodian
laws published in English and French every two months. The project also
funded a Council of Jurists website. The journal and the website published a
selection of important new laws and regulations in Khmer, English and
French. For the purpose of legal research, however, these resources were of
limited use as they only published a selection of the laws and regulations
passed. The project was also expensive to run as it required a team of
translators to produce the English and French versions of the laws. Cost
recovery was not viable in the short period of time during which the project
was funded. The reasons for this related to the state of the Cambodian book
market; expensive production costs; a lack of advertising and poor distribution
networks. The venture ended once the original funds ran out.
4. WorldLII/DIAL (Development of the Internet for Asian Law) Project (see
http://www.worldlii.org/catalog/dial). Worldlii/DIAL has developed a index of
Cambodian legal resources online. As there is such a paucity of Cambodian
legal materials available online, however, the Worldlii/DIAL efforts at
indexing current materials is somewhat unsatisfying. Addressing this deficit,
Worldlii/DIAL have taken initial steps towards generating new online legal
resources. This has involved the online publication of the UNDP database (see
above) as well as materials provided by local NGO, the Community Legal
Education Center and the non-profit publisher Cambodian Legal Resource
Development Center (CLRDC). Recently Worldii has also published a
selection of law, regulations and arbitral awards relating to labour law.
Unfortunately, however, lack of resources and difficulties in the presentation
of Khmer script are hampering the further development of the Worldlii
Cambodian databases.
5. The Arbitration Council: A Case Study on the Effects of Access to Legal
Information
One exception to the rather gloomy situation described above comes from the newly
established Arbitration Council, a tribunal which conducts mandatory (but nonbinding) arbitration of collective labour disputes. Though this tribunal is required by
law to hold hearings behind closed doors, as of June 2003 its judgments have been
published on the Internet in both English and Khmer (www.arbitrationcouncil.org).
In taking what might, in other contexts, be seen as a rather mundane step the
Arbitration Council became the first Cambodian institution of justice to regularly
publish its decisions in any broadly available form.
Commenting on the importance of publishing judgments Tuon Siphann, an arbitrator
of the Cambodian Arbitration Council, said that:
Access to information is the cornerstone of accountable decision making. As
arbitrators, we publish our judgments for everyone to read. Sometimes people
criticize us but that is OK. It encourages us to improve our work. We try to set
an example to a judiciary which seems afraid to let the people know how they
decide.7
While not pretending to provide more than a scant qualitative evaluation of the impact
of the publication of the decisions of a tribunal which has been operating for less than
two years, initial research based on the author’s observations and interviews with
stakeholders8 form a basis for some preliminary reflections. These can be
summarized as follows:
1. Accountability: As indicated in the quote from Mr Tuon Siphann above, the
knowledge that awards are published and widely read by colleagues gives the
arbitrators an incentive to develop well reasoned and justified awards.9
Discussions with arbitrators indicate that they feel as though their professional
reputation is tied to these published awards in a way which would not be the
case if the awards were available only to the parties to the dispute. Arbitrators
also feel that criticism of the awards which is generated through their
publication allows for a cycle of learning and self reflection which would
otherwise be absent.
Interestingly a minority of arbitrators also feel as though the sort of reasoned
decision which is promoted through the publication of judgments is out of step
with Cambodian traditions, overly complicated, confusing to parties and
unduly time consuming for arbitrators.
2. Discussion of Legal Principles among Stakeholders: Anecdotal evidence
from stakeholders indicates that awards are widely circulated and read,
particularly among the union movement, the legal profession and
employers.10. Employers, unions and government, although (or perhaps
because) they are not always happy with the decisions of the Council agree
that the advent of the Council with its online publication of judgments has lead
to increased discussion of the labour law. In a number of key cases there is
also evidence that industry or sector-wide changes in practice are occurring
based on principles established in awards of the Council. Thus for example, a
recent decision of the Council relating to the distribution of tips in the hotel
industry11 provoked national hotel associations to conduct a review of its
members’ policies with regard to tips and service charges.
This experience of the impact of publication reflects Marc Galanter’s (1985,
p.545) oft quoted assertion that law:
usually works not by the exercise of force but by information transfer,
by communication of what is expected forbidden or allowable as well
as the consequences of acting in certain ways. […] Similarly when we
describe ‘bargaining in the shadow of the law,’ we refer to regulation
accomplished by the flow of information rather than directly by an
authoritative decision. […] In the vast number of instances the
application of law is, so to speak, self administered – people regulate
their conduct (and judge the conduct of others) on the basis of their
knowledge about legal standards, possibilities and constraints… .
Information transfer is arguably even more important for the Arbitration
Council than for other tribunals given that the Council has no power to issue a
binding award without the agreement of the parties.12 As unenforceable
applications of law and equity to particular factual situations Awards have no
innate legal power. Accordingly the authority of the Council rests almost
entirely on the credibility of its arbitrators and the respect which is generated
through the publication of well reasoned awards.13
Another interesting aspect of the publication of the Council’s awards relates to
the accessibility of the internet to a global audience. At this stage some 90% of
the cases referred to the Arbitration Council deal with factories producing
garments for the international market. Thus despite the fact that the Council is
operating in one of Southeast Asia’s smallest economies, its awards have
potential to generate interest outside Cambodia. The international readership
of the Council’s decisions includes:



buyers such as NIKE and GAP who source their produce in Cambodia
and whose corporate images have proven sensitive to allegations
regarding compliance and human rights violations in the developing
world;
the US Department of Labour which both funds the Council (through
the ILO) and monitors working conditions in Cambodia as part of the
US-Cambodia Textile Agreement; as well as
unions and consumer organizations which are concerned with workers’
rights in the developing world.14
As such the publication of the Council’s awards on the internet have the
potential to integrate the jurisdiction into a global public sphere in a way
which would be far less effective were the Council to restrict itself to paper
publication.
3. Development of the study of jurisprudence: The natural corollary of the fact
that Cambodian courts do not publish reasoned judgments is that there is very
little, if any, discussion of Cambodian jurisprudence. The publication of
awards of the Arbitration Council is starting a new tradition in this respect.
A related development is that through the publication of arbitral awards
online, many legal academics and law students are for the first time able to
read decisions of a tribunal which deal with Cambodian law. This is
particularly important in a country where law is largely studied by learning to
read statutes and where secondary legal materials such as scholarly articles
and commentaries are rare. In these circumstances the publication of awards
online opens up new possibilities for the development of a more analytical
study of the law.
Though the Council has only been in operation for nine months the importance
of access to law to legal learning can already be seen as the Cambodian Bar
Association’s Lawyer Training School, with support from the American Bar
Association, is planning a clinical legal education program which will
incorporate study of the Council’s awards. The study of awards of the
Arbitration Council is also being incorporated into texts on Cambodian labour
law.15
4. Encourages reflection on separation of powers: In a particularly
encouraging development, the wide ranging awareness of arbitral awards, both
within Cambodia and among international interests as outlined above, seems
to have encouraged the executive to reflect on issues of the separation of
powers.16 Prior to the establishment of the Council and in the absence of an
effective court system to deal with labour disputes, the responsibility for
interpreting and applying the labour law fell largely to the ministry responsible
for labour. One of the effects of having another body publishing its
interpretations of law with broad circulation has been to confront this
assumption.
In two notable arbitral awards17 which were delivered and in the first months
of the Council’s operation, employers disagreed with the interpretation of the
law as set out by the Council. In both cases, employer organizations requested
the Ministry to clarify the point of law in question. In both cases the Ministry
quite correctly declined to intervene in the matter referring the employers to
the courts if they desired a review of any interpretation or application of law
contained in an award. It is of course difficult to determine the impact which
online distribution of awards had on the Ministry’s decision not to intervene in
these cases. Nevertheless, given the general dominance of the executive in the
Cambodian legal system, it is tempting to speculate that the public status and
wide distribution of the awards in question played a role in securing them
against executive intervention.
6. Reproducing the Model
Although the above reflections on the impact of the publication of laws and
judgments online are anecdotal, it seems uncontroversial to argue that the Arbitration
Council’s efforts in this field represent a worthwhile experiment in the development
of Cambodia’s legal/judicial system. Proceding on this assumption this paper will
now devote some consideration to the issues which would need to be thought out if
one were to attempt a broader project in online access to Cambodian law.
Problem 1: Political Will
One of the reasons why the Arbitration Council publishes its awards is that it is an
independent statutory body with backing from organizations like the International
Labour Organization and the US Department of Labour which have a strong
institutional commitment to the development of the rule of law in Cambodia.
The failure of previous efforts to coordinate the publication of laws and judgments
could give reason to doubt that the provision of public access to information is a
priority of the Cambodian government. On the other hand recent statements from the
Council of Legal and Judicial Reform (RGC, 2003), The Minister for the Council of
Ministers (Sok An, 2002) and the Ministry of Commerce (Sok Sipana, undated)
indicate gathering momentum for the publication of laws and regulations, if not
judicial decisions.
Problem 2: Resources
The Arbitration Council is has a limited jurisdiction (it deals with only collective
labour disputes). It also has a donor funding and thus can afford to maintain its
publication activities. Sufficient medium term funding for this venture is likely to
come from government, stakeholders and donors, however, a system wide approach to
publication of legal information, however, would require significant resources on a
long-term basis. Past experience shows that the government has not been able to
commit funds to publish more than a most basic journal of laws and regulations.
Where steps have been taken to do more than this it has been with short term donor
funding and it has been difficult to sustain these efforts.
Problem 3: Online v. Print
In a situation of scarce resources as in Cambodia there is a question of whether it is
preferable to invest in online or print publication.
Arguing against a focus on online publication, one could raise the following issues:
1. The limited scope of coverage: The Internet in Cambodia has limited
coverage (major cities and towns only), is slow by international standards (few
connections over 128kps, most 64kps or less) and is unaffordable for an
average citizen (internet café prices of US$0.50 per hour compare with a
factory worker’s salary of US$45 per month).
2. Font problems: Though Unicode exists for Khmer fonts, Worldlii’s
experiments in publishing Khmer language materials in html indicate that
there are some difficulties in processing large volumes of information in
Khmer. These problems may, however, be alleviated as Khmer Unicode is
integrated into new computer systems.
3. Higher start-up costs: The use of a new technology require additional inputs
for the development of infrastructure, hardware, software, and human
resources which is not required for the publication of simple printed
compilations of law. These are not quickly recoverable in the same way as is
possible through the sale of printed materials.
4. Risks of un-sustainability: One of the risks of choosing more
complex/higher technology options for the publication of law is that sufficient
capacity may not be built during the period of any initial project funding.
Alternatively, if sufficient capacity is built then it may not be possible to retain
highly trained staff without donor funding. If this is the case then electronic
publication may cease again once project funding stops (as happened with the
United National Development Fund (UNDP) and World Bank funded projects
noted above). On the other hand, simple print publication may be easier to
sustain without ongoing external inputs.
However, one could argue in favor of a focus on online publication, pointing out the
following:
1. Consistent with international trends, Internet usage in Cambodia is
increasing and prices are falling.
2. The Arbitration Council experience shows that key stakeholders (lawyers,
legal academics; government and civil society organizations) are open to
electronic distribution of legal information.
3. Other media CDROMs and print can be used in conjunction with online
databases without incurring significant extra costs. Sale of these media can
also be used for cost recovery.
In considerations about which path to pursue, the author is reminded of a 1999 article
where Legal Information Institute Co-Director, Peter Martin, looks at the digitization
of the Encyclopedia Britannica as case study for the transformations which were
going on in the American legal system at the end of the 20th Century (Martin, 1999).
In the Cambodian context, Martin’s piece invites a reflection on a different case
study. Australians traveling to Phnom Penh, a city different from Sydney or Canberra
in almost every way, will find at least one familiar sight; telephone booths complete
with the old style burnt orange logo, ripped up from Australia in the early 90s and
transplanted by Telstra at a time when that corporation had a contract to develop
Cambodia’s telecommunications infrastructure. The assumption was clearly that all
cities need telephone booths, just like Sydney or Canberra. However, a period of
observation of these booths reveals that they are rarely if ever used. Instead,
chronically underemployed Cambodian youths sit by the roadside with their mobile
phones, renting these to passing trade for 7 cents a minute.
What are the implications of our neglected Telstra booths for the development of legal
resources in Cambodia? Rusting they remind us that when it comes to the use of
technology you don’t have to learn to walk before you learn to run. Cambodia’s
history gives the country a chance to leap frog stages in the development of legal
information systems. In this context it would seem unfortunate make significant
further investments in a print infrastructure when this is unlikely to be the primary
way in which people will want to access legal information, 10 or even 5 years in the
future.
7. Conclusion: Next Steps
On the basis of the Cambodian specific experience of the Arbitration Council there is
an argument that the publication and distribution of law in electronic form is an
appropriate tool to address the question of access to information in a legal system
which has operated without adequate access to even the most basic legal information.
Though there are issues to consider with regard to the development of a legal
information system which will work in the Cambodian context, the country would
appear to be at a juncture whereby there is sufficient political will to commence a
dialogue with government, academia and civil society with a view to developing a
model for the sustainable provision of legal information via the internet. Ideally, any
movements in this direction would be accompanied by a regulation requiring all
institutions of state to provide certain identified classes of documents for free
electronic distribution.
In imagining the impact that such systems will have on the future of law in Cambodia,
it is important to remember that as with the printed word, the internet is not
automatically a progressive force. Though access to information is a necessary
prerequisite for democratic change the publication of law, whether online or in books,
should not alone be expected to drive legal and judicial reform in a system which has
been resistant to such transformations for over a decade. To paraphrase the Dalai
Lama, ‘freedom, equality and human dignity’ (Lafitte, 1994, p.15) are not
technologically determined but are always the result of concerted effort on behalf of
those who hold such values to be universal. Thus in Cambodia, as elsewhere in the
world, we should anticipate that the development of the rule of law will be dependent
not only information sharing, but on the establishment of networks of people who are
determined to use that information to promote a legal system which is independent,
predicable and just.
Notes and References
1 See, for example, Trubeck and Galanter (1974), Merryman (1977), Trubreck (2003) and Gardner
(1980).
2 In his list of technologies which have changed the law Martin includes the printing press and
technologies of writing, along with widespread literacy and organized libraries. It is interesting to note
that the latter items are not strictly speaking technologies but societal developments which arose
through human intervention many centuries after the technologies on which they were based were
discovered.
3 Though Martin’s focus has been on developed legal systems he has also published on the
establishment of Zamlii (Martin 1996), a legal information institute which Cornell helped to establish
in Zambia.
4 Of more direct relevance to the case of Cambodia may be experiences of countries like South Africa,
Zambia and the Pacific Islands covered by the PacLII network, all of which have taken steps toward
the delivery of legal information online in the past few years. Unfortunately from my position in
Cambodia, I have been unable to find more than brief descriptive accounts of the issues which the
online legal publishers in these countries have faced in the establishment of their services. Given what
appears to be a lack of systematic empirical research on the impact of online legal information services,
this could be a fruitful area for further study.
5 Thus for example in the recent case of Lee U Meng v. The Bar Association of the Kingdom of
Cambodia the Appeals Court closed a hearing to the public at the request of the President of the Bar
Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia. This case, heard on 18 March 2004 involved the appeal of
law graduate Lee U Meng against the Bar Association's decision to reject his application for admission
to practice law and involved no obvious issue of privacy.
6 Interview with the author 15 September 2003.
7 Interview with the author 19 September 2003.
8 Interviews conducted with representatives of unions and employer organizations, as well as lawyers
and legal academics.
9 Note that this represents a major departure from the practice of Cambodian court judgments which
will generally not contain a legal analysis of the case. Rather the judgment will provide a brief
statement of facts, a list of provisions on which the decision is based, and orders.
10 Statistics from the Arbitration Council website total over 1000 downloads of awards from July 2003
through February 2004. Though meager by international standards, these statistics indicate good levels
of use given the novelty of the service and the small audience for such information in Cambodia. At the
time of writing only 26 awards had been issued. Note also that the country has less than 250 lawyers,
and an industrial workforce estimated at no more than 300,000.
11 Cambodiana v. Cambodiana Employees Union, Arbitraiton Council Case #11/03
(<www.arbitrationcouncil.org/page4.html>).
12 Awards of the Arbitration Council are binding in the case that neither party lodges an objection to
an award within 8 days of its notification or if the parties have agreed to binding arbitration (see
Labour Law (1997), Chapter XII and Prakas on the Arbitration Council #338 of 2002).
13 It is interesting to note that despite the fact that parties have an eight day period in which to object to
awards (in which case they become non-binding) to date over two thrids of cases referred to the
Arbitration Council have been resolved successfully, either by implementation of an award or by
agreement between the parties (Statistics on outcomes of Arbitration Council cases are cited from ILO
(2005).
14 See for example coverage of the Council's decisions relating to service charges in the hotel industry
at: <http://www.asianfoodworker.net/cambodia/service01.htm> &
<http://www.asianlabour.org/archives/cat_cambodia.html> .
15 See for example Adler et al (2005).
16 Separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary are major issues in a country where
executive interventions in the judicial process are commonly reported. For example, after the arrest of a
number of senior customs officials in October 2003 national English language newspaper, the
Cambodia Daily [15 Oct 2003] quoted the Prime Minister as saying “the court must let these people go
because they are innocent”.
17 See arbitral awards of the cases of Jacqsintex (#10/03) and Cambodiana (#11/03)
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