ABSTRACT The application of law in South East Asia frustrates many scholars due to its subliminal character. I call this subliminal form of law ‘legalism’. This article adopts the method of historical sociology to trace three evolutionary phases in South East Asia’s international history of legalism to illuminate the cumulative mixture of informality beneath formality in the practice of legalism via ‘social morality’. In pre-colonial times, divinely-guided moral censure and the ethical reputation of particular rulers passed for proto-intersocietal law. In colonial times, international law was foisted by Western powers onto the informal social morality of the region, resulting in power politics operating behind legal manoeuvres. The advent of ASEAN saw a reversion to a preference for even greater informality and soft law. Finally, the post-colonial era witnessed experimentation with Westphalian international law. This has resulted nowadays in a cumulative halfway house of soft legalism operated through diplomatic social morality.

中文翻译：

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无法承受的法制之轻：社会道德在东南亚国际政治中的历史作用

摘要 法律在东南亚的适用因其潜意识的特征而令许多学者感到沮丧。我称这种潜意识形式的法律为“法律主义”。本文采用历史社会学的方法追溯东南亚国际法家史的三个演进阶段，以通过“社会道德”来阐明法家实践中形式化之下的非正式性的累积混合。在前殖民时代，由神圣引导的道德谴责和特定统治者的道德声誉通过了原始社会间法律。在殖民时代，国际法被西方列强强加于该地区非正式的社会道德，导致强权政治以合法手段运作。东盟的出现使人们恢复了对更大程度的非正式性和软法律的偏好。最后，后殖民时代见证了威斯特伐利亚国际法的实验。这导致了当今通过外交社会道德运作的软律法主义的累积中途。