NUS Law hosts the 20th Asian Law Institute Annual Conference

NUS Law successfully hosted the 20th Asian Law Institute (ASLI) Conference from 31 May to 1 June 2023. Themed “Inclusivity and Diversity in the Context of Asian Law”, the conference saw the largest turnout of international visitors to NUS Law since 2019, with 200 legal scholars from Asia and beyond, including Australia, and countries in Africa, Europe, and North and Latin America. It also marked the return of the annual conference to an in-person format.

Professor Andrew Simester, Dean of NUS Law, opened the conference by warmly welcoming the delegates to Singapore and to the law school’s historic Bukit Timah campus. This was followed by speeches by Dr Velliana Tanaya (Dean of Universitas Pelita Harapan, Faculty of Law), the Chairperson of the ASLI Board of Governors, and Associate Professor Kelry Loi, Co-Director of ASLI. Addressing the theme of the conference, Associate Professor Loi noted that diversity is a fact in all societies, and that Asia’s approach towards diversity is inclusivity: By accepting our diversity instead of trying to eliminate it, we accommodate diverse interests, to provide one another a fair opportunity to achieve reasonable aspirations.

The keynote speech was delivered by Mr Edwin Tong S.C., Minister for Culture, Community & Youth and Second Minister for Law. An alumnus of NUS Law, his substantive speech noted the economic rise of Asia, emphasised the importance of ASLI in promoting co-operation among scholars of Asian law, and suggested areas where scholars might constructively contribute towards Asia’s development.

The two-day conference strengthened ties between legal scholars and law schools across Asia and beyond, with opportunities to discuss ideas on law and law reform in Asia. It provided a forum for outstanding legal discourse about law in Asia, demonstrating the collective commitment to advancing knowledge and ideas about law and justice in a diverse region. The programme covered a large range of topics and approaches to law — through 158 presentations organised into 25 panel discussions including Banking and Finance, Human Rights, Criminal Law, Corporate Law and Governance — reflecting the strength and diversity of ASLI’s member institutions.

At the closing of the conference on 1 June 2023, Professor Ernest Lim, Vice-Dean for Faculty Development at NUS Law, delivered the keynote lecture on “Corporate Law and Sustainability / ESG”. It was also announced by Dr Pareena Srivanit (Dean of Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Law) that the 21st ASLI Annual Conference would be hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. The proceedings concluded with Professor Masami Okino (University of Tokyo, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics) taking over as the new Chairperson of the ASLI Board of Governors.

About the Asian Law Institute (ASLI)

Founded in 2003, ASLI is an association of about a hundred law schools (within Asia and beyond) interested in teaching and researching Asian law. At its core, ASLI has 16 founding institutions including NUS Law, whose representatives sit on its Board of Governors.

ASLI organises an annual signature conference hosted by its founding institutions on a rotational basis. As the Secretariat is based in NUS Law, the law school hosts the conference every four years, with the last being the 16th ASLI Conference in 2019. Due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, the successive conferences were held online and helmed by National Law University, Delhi, in 2020; Universitas Pelita Harapan, based in Indonesia, in 2021; and the University of Tokyo in 2022.