In 1998, the Cambodian Bar Association requested the support of ASF France in the reconstruction of the rule of law. Indeed, the four years of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) had decimated the country and bled the judicial system dry.

The Bar Association of the Kingdom of Cambodia (CARL), created in 1995, had to face up to the needs.

immense access to justice, the training of its members and the important challenge of trying the leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime before the Extraordinary Chambers of the Cambodian Courts (ECCC). Composed of about 25 lawyers, most of whom returned from exile after the 1993 elections, the ECCC now has more than 600 members, including 107 women.

A "Memorandum of Understanding" was signed in 2004 and renewed in 2009 between CARL and ASF France, for the strengthening of the capacities of the Bar and the Cambodian Lawyers' Professional Training Center (CFPA).

This action of capacity building for Cambodian lawyers through the implementation of trainings intended for the promotions of student lawyers of the CFPA, started in 2005, has been extended since 2009 to the capacity building of magistrates, through trainings given to the promotions of student magistrates of the Royal School of Magistracy.