Centre for Asian and Pacific Law

The Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney (CAPLUS), located within Sydney Law School, is a leading centre for the teaching and research of law and legal systems in Asia and the Pacific.

The Centre's members have legal expertise in a wide variety of Asian jurisdictions, including China, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia. The Centre offers courses covering a wide variety of legal issues in these countries, including commercial law, investment, constitutional law, human rights, land law, tax, environmental law, labour law, customary law, Islamic law, law enforcement institutions, and dispute resolution.

Chinese law is taught intensively both in Sydney (in alternate years and to undergraduate and Juris Doctor students only) and in China at the Shanghai Winter School. Japanese law is taught intensively in Japan at the Kyoto and Tokyo Seminars. Indonesian and Malaysian law will be taught offshore for the first time in 2012 at the Southeast Asia Winter School.

The Centre holds numerous seminars, workshops and conferences, and hosts visiting scholars from all over Asia.

Southeast Asia Winter School

This new offshore unit of study will take place in Indonesia and Malaysia in July 2012 and aims to equip students with the knowledge about legal systems, political environments and cultural practices they need to 'operate' in the region. In 2012, the course will be held from 9-13 July (in Indonesia) and 16-21 July (in Malaysia). A pre-departure briefing will be held in Sydney on 2 July.

The Indonesian component of the course will be taught at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, which has one of Indonesia's finest law faculties. Students will learn the fundamentals of the Indonesian legal system. This component will be geared towards not only those who want to practice commercial law in Indonesia, but also those who are interested in other areas, including law reform, human rights, Islamic law, constitutional law, environmental law and criminal law.

The Malaysian component will be taught at the International Islamic University in Kuala Lumpur, which has one of the largest and most prestigious law faculties in Malaysia. Students will learn the fundamentals of the Malaysian legal system in the contexts of Malaysia's competing ethnicities, political and economic reform and the harmonisation of laws. A particular focus will be on the dual banking system and the role of Islamic law in the development of trade, banking and finance.

Register your interest in the 2012 Southeast Asia Winter School

Download the flyer (pdf, 512KB)