THIO 
Li-ann

 
Professor, Provost's Chair

Academic Fellow

Cluster Coordinator (Comparative Public Law)

Professor Thio Li-ann teaches and has published widely in the fields of public international law, human rights law, constitutional and administrative law. She is currently the Chief Editor for the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of East Asia and International Law, National Taiwan University Law Review and on the advisory board of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, Australian Journal of Asian Law and International Law & Human Rights Discourse.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Contact

lawtla@nus.edu.sg
(65) 6516-3617
ETS-02-35

Education

PhD (University of Cambridge); LLM (Harvard University); BA (University of Oxford); Barrister (Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn)

Curriculum Vitae

View CV

Current Courses

Constitutional & Administrative Law

Professor Thio Li-ann teaches and has published widely in the fields of public international law, human rights law, constitutional and administrative law. She is currently the Chief Editor for the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of East Asia and International Law, National Taiwan University Law Review and on the advisory board of the New Zealand Yearbook of International Law, Australian Journal of Asian Law and International Law & Human Rights Discourse.

Li-ann is on the international advisory board of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (from 2015), the University of Bologna Law Review and City University of Hong Kong Law Review.

She was formerly Chief Editor, Singapore Journal of International & Comparative Law (2000-2003), General Editor for Asian Yearbook of International Law and Editor for International Journal of Constitutional Law.

Li-ann has taught courses at the law faculties of Hong Kong University and the University of Melbourne. A leading Singapore constitutional scholar, she is the author of A Treatise on Singapore Constitutional Law (Academy Publishing, 2012). She also co-authored Constitutional Law in Malaysia and Singapore

(Lexis Nexis, 2010, 3rd ed.), co-edited Evolution of a Revolution: 40 Years of the Singapore Constitution (Routledge-Cavendish, 2009), and is co-editor of a book series with Hart Publishing on Constitutionalism in Asia (from 2017), all withAdjunct Professor Kevin Y.L. Tan. She was an expert witness before the Australian Federal Court and academic freedom consultant to the University of Warwick (2005).

She was a Nominated Member of Parliament (2007-2009), and received the NUS Young Researcher Award in 2004.

Books
Thio Li-ann, The Rule of Law in Singapore: Legal Communitarianism, Paternal Democracy and the Developmentalist State (Hart Publishing 2025)

Kevin Y.L. Tan and Thio Li-ann, Constitutional and Administrative Law: Cases, Materials and Commentary (Academy Publishing 2021)

Edited Books
Javier Martínez-Torrón and Thio Li-ann (eds), Fundamental Rights, Religion and Human Dignity: A Constitutional Journey (Routledge 2024)

Thio Li-ann and Jaclyn L. Neo (eds), Religious Offences in Common Law Asia: Colonial Legacies, Constitutional Rights and Contemporary Practice (Hart Publishing 2021)

Book Chapters
Javier Martínez-Torrón and Thio Li-ann, 'Contemporary Debates on Human Dignity and the Implications for Freedom of Religion — A Provisional Exploration' in Javier Martínez-Torrón and Thio Li-ann (eds), Fundamental Rights, Religion and Human Dignity: A Constitutional Journey (Routledge 2024) 1

Thio Li-ann, 'Law, Reconciliation and Human Dignity: Religious Diversity and Managing Religious Harmony in Singapore' in Javier Martínez-Torrón and Thio Li-ann (eds), Fundamental Rights, Religion and Human Dignity: A Constitutional Journey (Routledge 2024)

Thio Li-ann, 'Legal Communitarianism and Pandemic Regulation in Singapore' in Stefan Braum (ed), Experimental Law: The Rule of Law and the Regulation of the Corona Pandemic in Europe (NOMOS 2023) 383

Thio Li-ann, 'Negotiating Particularisms, Excavating Principles and Delimiting Provinces: Justice Andrew Phang and His Contributions to Singapore Public Law' in Goh Yihan (ed), Pursuing Justice and Justice Alone – The Heart and Humanity of Andrew Phang’s Jurisprudence (Academy Publishing 2022)

Thio Li-ann, 'Rule of Law: The Sacred Roots and Secular Shoots of the Supreme Law' in Nicholas Aroney and Ian Leigh (eds), Christianity and Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press 2022) 193

Thio Li-ann, 'Human Dignity and Relational Constitutionalism in Singapore' in Jimmy Hsu (ed), Human Dignity in Asia: Dialogue between Law and Culture (Cambridge University Press 2022) 187

Thio Li-ann, 'Public Law' in Simon Chesterman, Goh Yihan and Andrew Phang Boon Leong (eds), Law and Technology in Singapore (Academy Publishing Press 2021) 577

Thio Li-ann, 'Religious Offences Penal Clauses and the Singapore Constitutional Order: Secular, Sensible but Sensitive to the Sacred?' in Thio Li-ann and Jaclyn L Neo (eds), Religious Offences in Common Law Asia: Colonial Legacies, Constitutional Rights and Contemporary Practice (Hart Publishing 2021)

Thio Li-ann, 'Apollonian Restraint and Dionysian Impulse: Law, Freedom and Religious Feelings' in Thio Li-ann and Jaclyn L Neo (eds), Religious Offences in Common Law Asia: Colonial Legacies, Constitutional Rights and Contemporary Practice (Hart Publishing 2021)

Thio Li-ann, 'Courts and Judicial Review' in Peter Cane, Herwig C H Hofmann, Eric C Ip, and Peter L Lindseth (eds), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Administrative Law (Oxford University Press 2020) 721

Thio Li-ann, 'Ambivalence, Accommodation, Antipathy and Anxiety: Religion and Singapore's Secular Democratic Order' in Vidhu Verma, Aakash Singh Rathore (Series Editor) (ed), Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia (Oxford University Press 2020) 54

Thio Li-ann, 'Constitutionalism in Asia' in David Law (ed), Oxford Handbook of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2020)

Journal Articles
Thio Li-ann, 'Administrative and Constitutional Law' (2022) 23 Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review of Singapore Cases 1

Thio Li-ann, 'Rightism, Reasonableness and Review: Section 377A of the Penal Code and the Question of Equality – Article One' (2022) 34 Singapore Academy of Law Journal 108

Thio Li-ann, 'Of Variable Standards of Scrutiny and Legitimate Legal Expectations: Article 12(1) and the Judicial Review of Executive Action' [2022] Singapore Journal of Legal Studies 95

Thio Li-ann, 'Varieties of Constitutionalism in Asia' [2021] Asian Journal of Comparative Law

Thio Li-ann, 'Rightism, Reasonableness and Review: Section 377A of the Penal Code and the Question of Equality – Article Two' [2021] Singapore Academy of Law Journal

Thio Li-ann, 'Administrative and Constitutional Law' (2021) 22 Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review of Singapore Cases 1

Thio Li-ann, 'Administrative and Constitutional Law' (2020) 21 Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review of Singapore Cases 1

  • Public International law, its History & Theory
  • International Human Rights Law & the Rights of Peoples
  • Constitutional Law & Administrative law: Domestic & Comparative Perspectives
  • Constitutionalism and Human Rights in Asia
  • Law and Religion