International legal cooperation
What is international legal cooperation?
International Legal Cooperation is about promoting awareness and understanding of Australia’s legal system and institutions in the Asia–Pacific and other regions. It aims to facilitate a greater understanding of each country’s laws, legal systems and legal institutions, particularly in areas of trade, business and international law, and to contribute to the development of legal institutions, legal education and training and professional legal contact and interchange.
What are the benefits of international legal cooperation?
A well-focussed legal cooperation element is an essential component of Australia’s broad-based approach to promoting links, mutual understanding of each other’s legal systems and the liberalisation of international trade in legal services.
International cooperation activities such as in-country seminars, exchange and placement programs, capacity building and technical transfer initiatives increase the comfort levels amongst the profession, government authorities and other key stakeholders in host economies by identifying the mutual benefits both to the legal sector and the host economy. Legal cooperation activities also encourage policy dialogue and information exchange on ‘best practice’ approaches to the regulation of international legal services.
International legal cooperation provides the essential foundation on which to build increased opportunities and international mobility of legal practitioners, legal academics and related legal service providers.
Australia’s international legal cooperation activities
The Attorney-General's Department works with the legal profession, the Law Council of Australia, the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and other government agencies in engaging with counterpart agencies within the region on international legal cooperation projects.
Recent legal cooperation initiatives include:
- Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Legal Cooperation between the Attorney-General’s Department and the Ministry of Justice of the People’s Republic of China. The MOU focuses on strengthening relationships between Australian and Chinese law and justice sectors.
- Legal cooperation with Indonesia through the Australia-Indonesia Ministerial Forum’s Working Group on Legal Cooperation, and
- the Australia–China Legal Profession Development Program. For further information on this program please see the International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC) website.
The Australian Government has established the International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC), a high-level independent advisory council with members drawn from both government and private sectors, to advise the Attorney-General on matters relevant to Australia’s international performance in legal and related services. ILSAC has a standing Committee on International Legal Cooperation. The Attorney-General's Department’s International Legal Services Policy Section also functions as the ILSAC Secretariat.
