[CALS] 2024 Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) Public Law Conference

The Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (CALS) is proud to have partnered Jindal Global Law School (JGLS) to organize the inaugural Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) Public Law Conference at JGLS’ campus on 24 and 25 October 2024.

The conference aimed to serve as a platform for emerging research on “the evolution of public law in post-colonial Asian nations” and reflect on “the broader socio-political transformations and the shifting boundaries between the public and private spheres”. The speakers hailed from  14 institutions across nine jurisdictions and presented their research across six panels on various aspects of public law, including its interaction and/or relationship with tax law, criminal law, environmental law, and corporate law. Speakers were selected through a rigorous selection process, which saw a total of 51 abstracts being submitted in response to a call for papers from 43 institutions across 15 jurisdictions.

Each panel of paper presentations was followed by detailed responses from commentators and saw lively discussions. Law students in attendance at the Conference were encouraged to ask critical questions of the presenters after each presentation.

The importance of such a platform cannot be overstated, and it is hoped that this will be the first of several such research conferences focusing on the evolving legal landscapes in Asia. This was emphasized by Professor Sudhir Krishnaswamy, Vice-Chancellor of the National Law School of India University, who delivered a special address on behalf of the ALSA Governing Council. In his opening remarks, Professor K. Sreejith, Executive Dean of Jindal Global Law School, spoke of the importance of grounding such research within Asia.

Associate Professor Jaclyn Neo, Director of CALS, delivered a keynote speech addressing delegates and students on the critical need to develop strong research agendas within Asian scholarship that centred on Asian experiences so as to provide strong theoretical foundations for the study of public law in the region and beyond.

CALS researchers,  Dr Raeesa Vakil (Post-Doctoral Fellow), and Mr Toh Ding Jun (Research Assistant), presented their papers titled ‘The Sense of Freedom in Federalism: Suits Between the States and the Union in India’ and ‘The Logic and Limits of (Chinese) Bankruptcy Law’ respectively.

For more information on ALSA, please visit: https://www.alsa.asia/.

For any inquiries, please contact us at: cals@nus.edu.sg.