Myanmar?s entry in Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1997 brought about several economic and social changes. One important change is tariff reduction through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT-scheme), which increased Myanmar?s export to countries outside the ASEAN. The increase in exports facilitated trade creation and investment creation for Myanmar.

Regionalisation has become an increasingly important phenomenon in a globalized world. As models of regional integration, the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are two prominent examples. This thesis seeks to explore through a comparative analysis, the different mechanisms and institutions for handling breaches against fundamental values within the two regional organizations. Inter-linked with the issue of the legal-institutional framework is that of what values the mechanisms are designed to protect. The method used for the analysis is first and foremost that of public international and European law, but the thesis also attempts to give a broader picture of the issues presented.