TU-CALS Symposium 2026 on Civil and Common Law Traditions in Asia: Convergence, Divergence, and Co-existence

On 16-17 July 2026, the Symposium on Civil and Common Law Traditions in Asia: Convergence, Divergence, and Co-existence was held in Bangkok. The Symposium, hosted by Thammasat University Faculty of Law (TU Law) in collaboration with the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS), was an event first of its type, marking an important milestone in the long-standing partnership between the two institutions.

The Symposium featured a keynote address titled “Common Law and Legal Pluralism in Malaysia”, delivered by Professor Andrew Harding from the National University of Singapore. Tracing the history of the introduction of the common law to Malysia, Professor Harding showed that the colonial authority’s initial rejection of legal pluralism was more apparent than real, as it soon gave way to absorbing local elements in its evolving jurisprudence. The legal identity that emerged from Malya states and the Strait Settlements, in his view, presents a compelling example of common law’s interaction with other legal traditions, which not only supports but also adds nuance to Alan Watson’s legal transplant thesis.

The Symposium consisted of four academic panels and two student panels, bringing together 26 academics, researchers, and undergraduate student researchers from eight jurisdictions – Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand. A total of 23 papers were presented, with topics ranging from public law to dispute resolution, and from comparative commercial law to comparative private law. A diverse range of methods were employed in these research projects, including doctrinal analysis, empirical surveys, economic analysis, comparative analysis, and historiography, to name a few. Among the participants, Dr Sarah Bishop, CALS Postdoctoral Fellow, presented a paper titled ‘Thai Constitutional Court Decision Format and Practices: Origins and Impacts’, in which she explored the correlations between institutional practices of constitutional courts and judicial decision-making; Mr Toh Ding Jun, CALS Research Assistant, offered an analysis of China’s ongoing experiments implementing a pre-bankruptcy procedure known domestically as “pre-reorganisation” with his paper ‘What is Being Transplanted? An Examination of China’s Reception of Pre-Packaged Bankruptcy’. Five undergraduate student researchers from NUS – James Ham, Joshua Poon, Emma Shuen Lee, Joshua Tay Jing Jie, and Rayson Ng Jun Heng – also gamely presented their research to a room of experienced scholars.

The success of the inaugural TU–CALS Symposium demonstrates CALS’s continued commitment to advancing a deeper understanding of Asia’s diverse legal traditions and promoting Asian perspectives in addressing contemporary legal challenges. As legal systems throughout Asia continue to evolve, we look forward to more future collaborations with TU Law in fostering intellectual dialogues and scholarly networks across Asia.