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Constitution-Making in 21st Century Asia

October 14, 2017 | Impact
Participants of the ‘Constitution-Making in 21st Century Asia’ workshop. From left: Senior Research Fellow Dr Bui Ngoc Son (NUS Law), Professor Andrew Harding LL.M. ’84 (NUS Law), Associate Professor Maartje de Visser (SMU School of Law), Professor Austin Pullé (SMU School of Law), Dr Venkat Iyer (Ulster University), Mr Rawin Leelapatana (University of Bristol), Adjunct Professor Kevin Tan ’86 (NUS Law), Post-doctoral Fellow Dr Nyi Nyi Kyaw (NUS Law) and Professor Bipin Adhikari (Kathmandu University)

The ‘Constitution-Making in 21st Century Asia’ workshop jointly organised by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) and SMU School of Law was held on 13 and 14 November 2017 at NUS Law and SMU School of Law. The workshop sought to explore how selected Asian nations have conducted, or are conducting, constitution-making in the face of pressures associated with globalisation, with reference to the following questions:

  • What is the nature and origin of the global and local factors that shape the design of constitution-making processes?
  • How do such factors interact: are they mutually constitutive of specific procedural choices or do they point in opposite directions, possibly injecting (more) tension in what often already is a complex and sensitive undertaking?
  • What are the consequences, both in terms of drafting processes and the eventual text of the constitution, that can be attributed to the interplay between global and domestic imperatives?
Workshop Convenors, Associate Professor Maartje de Visser (Co-Investigator) from SMU School of Law and Senior Research Fellow Dr Bui Ngoc Son (Principal Investigator) from CALS taking questions from participants.
Professor Bipin Adhikari from Kathmandu University sharing Nepal’s experiment with constitution-making.
Professor Joanne Wallis from Australian National University presenting on Timor-Leste via Skype.
Dr Venkat Iyer from Ulster University answering questions from participants.

List of Speakers and Commentators (in order of family name):

  • Bipin Adhikari (Kathmandu University School of Law)
  • Bui Ngoc Son (NUS Law)
  • Maartje de Visser (SMU School of Law)
  • Mark Findlay (SMU School of Law)
  • Andrew Harding LL.M. ’84 (NUS Law)
  • Venkat Iyer (Ulster University)
  • Nyi Nyi Kyaw (NUS Law)
  • Rawin Leelapatana (University of Bristol)
  • Austin Pullé (SMU School of Law)
  • Cheryl Saunders (Melbourne University)
  • Suri Ratnapala (University of Queensland)
  • Kevin Tan ’86 (NUS Law)
  • Thio Li-ann (NUS Law)
  • Joanne Wallis (Australian National University)