Our Expertise

Our expertise in terms of research and teaching, and training and consultancy pertains to Comparative Public Law, Human Rights, Governance & Compliance, and Security & Peace Studies, each with a distinctive regional focus.

CPG’s approach is selective and aims at achieving a high synergy of our theoretical and practical interests and expertise. Our expertise builds upon our own work on these issues and the experience of our associates, fellows, and partners.

In addition, we also provide general information on Thailand and Germany in the fields of law, politics, and academics in general, and foster exchanges on these topics.

CPG is a regional center, so the scope of our work is mainly directed at Southeast Asia.

Regional integration impacts — and is impacted by — international law and governance. Regional cooperation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, especially within the EU and ASEAN, exhibits a number of particularities. These include the respective form of regional integration and cooperation, the historical reasons for inception, the guiding principles and institutional settings, as well as future prospects and, crucially — especially for the EU — the legalities and normative structure of regional integration.

Judicial, economic, and security governance have been developed through institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and by activities such as peace keeping efforts of the African Union.

We address the different — sometimes even diverging — political values and concepts within and among Southeast Asian societies. We analyze various understandings and protective mechanisms of human rights, the management of borders, and regionally emerging threats for peace and the rule of law, as well as the ways to counter them cooperatively. Our regionally focused activities are broadly related to the three ASEAN communities:

• the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC);
• the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC); and
• the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).

CPG also analyzes the visions and practical benefits of regional integration as well as its potential or actual pitfalls. We examine what lies beneath regional integration and how regionalization is developing in the context of globalization. Based on detailed case knowledge, we critically assess and compare the functioning and future prospects of regionalization.