AALCO’s legacy in the codification and progressive development of international law lies above all in its role as an institutionalised Afro‑Asian voice within the UN system, shaping the evolution of key treaty regimes and customary rules from the perspective of Asian and African States.
From the beginning, its Statutes identified the consideration of legal problems referred by Member States, and the follow‑up of the International Law Commission’s work as core objectives, thereby positioning the Organization not simply as a forum for discussion but as a mechanism for collective intervention in global norm‑making. In the post‑colonial context, this mandate gave AALCO special significance: it offered States that had only recently acceded to sovereignty a structured way to articulate their priorities and legal concepts in multilateral codification processes otherwise plagued by eurocentrism.
A central pillar of this legacy is AALCO’s sustained engagement with the International Law Commission, anchored in Article 1(d) of its Statutes, which requires the Secretariat to examine subjects under ILC consideration and make recommendations based on inputs from Member States. Through meetings at the Annual Sessions devoted to the ILC most recent report, direct engagement with the ILC and UN General Assembly, AALCO has enabled Asian and African States to coordinate positions on the work products of the ILC and to speak with a more coherent voice in the UN Sixth Committee. This “bridging” function widely acknowledged ensures that codification and progressive development efforts at the UN are informed by a diverse regional perspective and that the resulting instruments enjoy broader legitimacy and acceptance.
Substantively, AALCO’s imprint is visible in fields such as customary international law, diplomatic and consular law, special missions and particularly the law of the sea, where scholarly assessments underline that topics actively considered by the ILC were first extensively debated within AALCO, generating reports and draft positions that fed into negotiations leading to conventions like UNCLOS. Its contribution has also been recognised in the development of refugee law through the 1966 “Bangkok Principles”, and in the refinement of legal regimes concerning international trade and economic cooperation.