His Excellency Dr Michael Witter, the German Ambassador to Singapore, began the Symposium with his welcome remarks. The Deputy Secretary-General of KAS, Dr. Gerhard Wahlers, then officially commenced the event with a Welcome Address. We also warmly welcomed Professor Dr. h.c. Rudolf Mellinghoff, President of the German Supreme Court of Finance and former Judge of the Federal Constitutional Court, to grace this occasion and join us as a speaker for the panel sessions.

The Symposium was comprised of 3 panel sessions, chaired by renowned judges, academics and legal practitioners, who shared their thoughts and perspectives through a survey of the development of the rule of law in Asia’s past, present and future, focusing on the following themes:

Developments in the Rule of Law in Asia: Highlights and Achievements;

Practical Dimensions of the Rule of Law: Challenges in Enforcement and Persistent Problems; and

Promoting and Establishing a ‘Rule of Law Culture’ in Asia

These panel sessions were moderated by the former Directors of the Rule of Law Programme Asia, Mr Clauspeter Hill and Judge Marc Spitzkatz, as well as present Director of the Programme, Ms Gisela Elsner.

Coming from diverse professional backgrounds and representing the different countries of Asia, the panellists engaged the audience in lively discussions and a Q&A session after their presentations. This provided an invaluable opportunity for our guests to share their own perspectives on the development of the rule of law in their respective countries.

The event was well-attended by legal practitioners and senior members of the legal industry across the Asian region, as well as representatives from KAS partner institutions in the legal sector and non-governmental organizations. These included Asian jurists from the KAS Alumni Lawyers’ Network and the Environmental Law experts with whom the Rule of Law Programme Asia has collaborated extensively over the years, as well as representatives of the various German institutions based in Singapore. In all, about 60 guests from 14 countries in Asia and the Pacific attended this commemorative event, reflecting the diversity of the work of our Programme and the extent of its outreach in the region.

The KAS Rule of Law Programme Asia would once again like to take this opportunity to extend its thanks to all our guests and participants for taking the time to join us in commemorating this momentous occasion, and to our partners for their continued cooperation of support of our activities. We hope to continue to collaborate and work together with our partners to further the development of the rule of law in Asia and as mentioned during the Symposium, “make the law come alive”.