Drafting inter-Asian legalities : Jakarta's transnational corporate lawyers

Asia's legal architecture is in a state of transformation, with commerce and information flowing easily across borders. These socio-political changes are a challenge to traditional notions of jurisdiction and applicable substantive law. I argue that a new body of law is developing "” akin to a law of merchants or lex mercatoria "” to facilitate these complex commercial relationships. I demonstrate how the map of inter-Asian legalities "” the connective tissue within and between Asian legal systems "” is being redrawn, blending non-state local rules, domestic state laws, international law, and privatised transnational law. These legal regimes are often applied in plural legal environments that are facilitated and administered by legal intermediaries. I argue that in recent decades, a new breed of legal intermediary has emerged in the form of transnational corporate lawyers and the global law firms for which they work. This article will focus on the transnational corporate lawyers of Jakarta, Indonesia, who implement new modes of documenting and disputing commercial relationships.