NUS Law receives US$238,000 from Henry Luce Foundation to train Next Generation of Socio-legal Scholars

The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law (NUS Law) has been awarded US$238,000 by the Henry Luce Foundation for the project Training Initiative for Asian Law & Society Scholars (TRIALS). Directed by NUS Law’s Associate Professor Lynette Chua ’03 in collaboration with Professor David Engel of The State University of New York, Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), TRIALS will offer training on research methods, scholarly writing, publication and career planning to the next generation of scholars to conduct research on law, society, and public policy in Asian societies.

Associate Professor Chua ’03 said “I am delighted and honoured that the Luce Foundation awarded the grant to our proposal. TRIALS is an outgrowth of four prior workshops where David and I saw the growing demand by young scholars for in-depth training and mentoring in Asian socio-legal research, which involves the use of social science theories and methods to study law and legal institutions. The need for evidence-based research on law is particularly obvious in Asia, where traditional doctrinal legal scholarship has proved incapable of meeting the need for sound empirical research that can serve as the basis for more reliable, just, and equitable policies and legal strategies.”

TRIALS will consist of six workshops, organised by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) at NUS Law, over a three-year period. Each workshop will provide opportunities for 8-10 graduate students and early career academics – approximately 50-60 participants over all six workshops – to learn from faculty members who are among the world’s leading interdisciplinary legal researchers. The workshops will create lasting relationships within each of the cohorts and between mentors and younger scholars that will continue for many years.

The first workshop will be held on 9-12 December 2019 followed by the next on 29 June-2 July 2020. NUS Law will announce the call for applications for the first two workshops on 20 April 2019.