Professor Andrew Harding awarded Honorary Doctor of Laws from Thammasat University

Congratulations to Professor Andrew Harding on being awarded the Honorary Doctor of Laws from Thammasat University, Thailand! The award is in recognition of his achievements, his work and his distinguished career. The Thammasat University Council passed the resolution at a meeting on 23 July 2018.

Professor Harding is a world-leading legal academic specialising in Asian law and comparative constitutional law. He played a vital role in encouraging research and academic activities concerning Asian law, and has also been instrumental in establishing a network for cooperation between academics with an interest in Asian law.

After graduating from Oxford University in 1974, Professor Harding began his legal career specialising in Asian law as a full time lecturer at NUS Law, where he also studied his LL.M, and became the faculty’s first LL.M. graduate. In 1986, he accepted a position as lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He was granted a professorship in 1996, and was appointed dean of the faculty that same year. After retiring from the University of London in 2004, Professor Harding accepted the position of Professor of Asia-Pacific Legal Relations at the Faculty of Law, University of Victoria, Canada.

In 2012, he moved back to NUS Law as a full time professor. From 2012 to 2016, Professor Harding was also the Director of the Asian Law Institute (ASLI) and the Director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at NUS Law. With these directorships, Professor Harding established and strengthened an international network of law faculties and legal institutions, both within and outside Asia, under the umbrella of ASLI. ASLI promotes annual academic events concerning Asian law and encourages the exchange and comparison of the body of knowledge regarding various legal systems in Asia.

Aside from these achievements, Professor Harding is the co-founder and the current president of the Association for Asian Constitutional Law, established at the annual conference of the Asian Law Institute at the Faculty of Law, Thammasat University in 2017. At Thammasat University, he teaches Constitutional Law, Public Law and Fundamental Rights in the International LL.B. Program. He is also an advisor on the management and development of the programmes offered at the faculty.

Professor Harding has authored more than 120 pieces of academic work which have been widely recognised and cited, including works on the Thai legal system. In 2011, he co-authored The Constitutional System of Thailand: A Contextual Analysis, which is the first textbook on Thailand’s constitutional law in the English language.