What's ICD?

The International Cooperation Department (ICD) engages in legal technical assistance to Asian countries, as part of international cooperation activities by the Ministry of Justice, and in cooperation with related organizations. It provides assistance in areas including: drafting and amending basic laws, improving legal and judicial systems, capacity-building of legal professionals, etc.  

Previously, the Research and Training Institute (RTI) received requests for assistance from Asian countries in the establishment of the rule of law and development of a market economy of their countries. In order to fully respond to the increased number of requests and provide further productive assistance, the ICD was established within the RTI in April 2001, as a department specializing in legal technical assistance.
    Since then, the number of recipient countries of assistance has expanded to include: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Indonesia, Nepal, Timor-Leste and others. Under close cooperation with related organizations, the ICD develops a wide variety of assistance activities that best suit the needs of the recipient countries, such as legislative assistance on basic laws, including the Civil Code, Civil Procedure Code, etc., assistance in institutional improvement to effectively enforce and operate enacted laws (creation of teaching materials, personnel capacity-building, etc.).

As a tool which generates a synergistic effect to the above, the ICD conducts research and studies regarding the legal systems in the Asia-Pacific region, organizes symposiums, and also stages an annual conference on technical assistance in the legal field to offer stakeholders opportunities to exchange views and information about their activities.