DILA was established in 1989, at a time when its prime movers believed that economic and political developments in Asia had reached the stage at which they would welcome and benefit substantially from a mechanism to promote and facilitate exchanges among their international law scholars that had failed to develop during the colonial era.
The Foundation was established to promote: (a) the study of and analysis of topics and issues in the field of international law, in particular from an Asian perspective; (b) the study of and dissemination of knowledge of international law in Asia; and (c) contacts and co-operation between persons and institutions actively dealing with questions of international law relating to Asia.
The Foundation is concerned with reporting and analyzing developments in the field of international law relating to the region, and not primarily with efforts to distinguish particular attitudes, policies or practices as predominately or essentially “Asian.” If they are shown to exist, it would be an interesting by-product of the Foundation’s essential function, which is to bring about an exchange of views in the expectation that the process would reveal areas of common interest and concern among the states of Asia, and even more importantly, demonstrate that those areas of interest and concern are, in fact, shared by the international community as a whole.