APAA 59th Council Meeting
Workshop
Intellectual Property from a global
perspective:
What it takes to make it click?
Venue: Makati Shangri La Hotel, Manila, Philippines
Time: 14:00- 16:30 on Sunday, 13th November 2011

Table Showing the Diversity of Languages, Legal
Systems and State amongst the 24 APAA
Jurisdictions
Kwong Chi Keung
Sit Fung Kwong & Shum
The 17 Recognized Groups of APAA
Country
Origin of legal system
Australia
[British Common Law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Australia
[British Common Law and Islamic Law]
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/bg.html
Bangladesh
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Japan
Korea
Macau
Malaysia
Official
language
English
Bangla, also
known as
Bengali
[British Common Law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Hong_Kong
[British Common Law, but also Hindu, Muslim and Christian Law
on separate personal legal codes]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_India#Christian_Law
[Roman-Dutch Law and customary law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Indonesia
[originally Franco-German civil code but after Second World War
incorporated Anglo-American elements]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_japan#
[civil law system based on German Civil Code]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_South_Korea &
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_(legal_system)
[primarily Portuguese law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Macau
English &
Chinese
Hindi &
English
[British Common Law and Islamic law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_malaysia
Malay
Indonesian
Japanese
Korean
Chinese &
Portuguese
2
The 17 Recognized Groups of APAA
Country
Origin of legal system
Official language
New Zealand [British Common Law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_New_Zealand
New Zealand English,
Te Reo Maori (the
Maori language), and
New Zealand Sign
Language
Pakistan
[British Common Law and Islamic law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Pakistan
[Spanish Civil Code with Anglo-American influence]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_legal_codes
[British Common Law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Singapore
Urdu & English
[mixture of Roman Dutch Law and Common Law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dutch_law &
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_Sri_Lanka
[German Civil Code]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_law_(legal_system)
Sinhala & Tamil
Philippines
Singapore
Sri Lanka
Taiwan
Filipino and English
Chinese (Mandarin),
English, Malay, Tamil
Standard Chinese
(Mandarin)
Thailand
[self-developed legal system- mixture of civil and common law]
Standard Thai
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Thailand &
http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Thailand.htm#Background
Vietnam
[Communist legal theory and French civil law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Vietnam
Vietnamese
3
The 7 Additional Jurisdictions with APAA Members
Country Origin of legal system
Bhutan
[the semi-theocratic Tsa Yig legal code and English common law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Bhutan
Brunei
[British Common Law and Islamic law]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei#Politics_and_government
Official
language
Dzongkha
Malay
Cambodia [Civil law system (influenced by the UN Transitional Authority in
Cambodia) customary law, Communist legal theory, and common
law] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/cb.html
Laos
[French Civil Law] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworld-factbook/geos/la.html
Khmer
Mongolia
[civil law system influenced by Soviet and Romano-Germanic legal
systems] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/mg.html
[British common law and customary law]
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/bm.html
Mongolian
[British Common Law and Hindu legal concepts]
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-worldfactbook/geos/np.html
Nepali
Myanmar
Nepal
Lao
Burmese
4

WIPO/WTO/UN links :
1.
http://www.wipo.int/export/sites/www/pct/en/fees/fee
_reduction.pdf (PCT list filing fee discount)
2.
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/
org7_e.htm (Members self-classify themselves when
they enter into the WTO)
3.
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.ht
m#developed (UN Statistics Division site reference)
5
Thank You!
ckkwong@sfks.com.hk