Centres and institutes_

Centre for Asian and Pacific Law

A leading centre for teaching and research in Asia and the Pacific

Explore our legal expertise in a wide variety of Asian jurisdictions, including China, Japan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Centre for Asian and Pacific Law is located within Sydney Law School. 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. The centre holds numerous seminars, workshops and conferences, and hosts visiting scholars from all over Asia.

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, and Indonesian and Malaysian law is taught offshore at the Southeast Asia Field School.

Our people

Centre management committee

Professor Simon Butt, Centre Co-Director
Associate Professor Jeanne Huang, Centre Co-Director
Professor Vivienne Bath, Associate Director – International
Associate Professor Salim Farrar, Leader of the discipline
Professor Bing Ling
Professor Luke Nottage
Professor Simon Bronitt

Centre associates

Micah Burch
Professor Penelope Crossley
Associate Professor Ghena Krayem
Professor Sheelagh McCracken
Professor Gail Pearson
Professor Ben Saul
Associate Professor Leon Wolff

Centre affiliates

Paul Davis represents Japanese utility, trading and mining companies in their investments overseas and has a broad range of dispute resolution experience in the mining and energy sectors.
Judge Judith Gibson, District Court of New South Wales
Dr Brett G Williams is the principal in the law firm Williams Trade Law. He is a specialist in International Regulation of Trade, especially the law of the World Trade Organization and bilateral and regional trade agreements. He has extensive experience as a teacher, researcher and technical assistance consultant in international trade law and policy. He has taught World Trade Organization law at the University of Sydney Law School since 2001 and at the Australian National University (2013-15), Chinese University of Hong Kong (2010-12), University of North Carolina (2004-06), William and Mary College (1996-98) and the University of Adelaide (1996). He has experience publishing, researching or working on the relationship between international trade law and the law of several Asia Pacific countries, including Australia, China, Malaysia, Samoa and Timor-Leste.
Dr Nobumichi Teramura is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies in the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, specialising in international arbitration (PhD, UNSW), private international law and contract law. He co-edited New Frontiers in Asia-Pacific International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (Wolters Kluwer, 2021).

Centre visitors

Associate Professor Meng Jin, East China University of Political Science and Law
Judge Saori Miyazaki
Associate Professor Shohei Eto, Faculty of Law, Hitotsubashi University
Professor Guo Li, Beijing University
Shinichi Nemoto, Meiji University School of Law
Professor Yuhong Zhao, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr Fifi Jaunita, Airlangga University, Indonesia
Associate Professor Dan He, Beijing Normal University, Law School
Dr Heecheol Kim, Wonkwang University School of Law, Republic of Korea
Judge Yoshitaka Uno, Tokyo District Court, Japan
Judge Taku Okada, Osaka District and Family Courts, Japan
Judge Shota Watanuki, Saga District Court, Japan
Judge Kaoru Ueno, Saga District Court, Japan
Associate Professor Jiang Fen, Zhejiang University, China
Professor Shitao Wang, Dalian Maritime University (2019)
Judge Yuriko Yamamoto, (June 2018 - June 2019) is a judge of Maebashi District Court in Japan hearing criminal cases. She will be visiting the University of Sydney Law School to research criminal justice system and its implications on the community as well as rehabilitation programs for known offenders.

Student interns

CAPLUS internships are advertised on an annual basis via the Law Student Portal in Canvas and the SULS jobs board. These roles are paid positions. Interns must be currently enrolled at Sydney Law School, have a strong overall academic record, and a demonstrated interest Asian and Pacific Law.

2024 interns

Shimeng (Corinna) Chen
Keona Febrian

2023 interns

Flora Lee
Thi My Kim Nguyen
Yixue Mei
Christina Shin

Our events

We hold seminars, conferences and workshops throughout the year. Visit our events calendar for all upcoming events.

Past events

Below is a list of some of our past events.

2021

Webinar: Cross-border flow of personal data - Globalized internet and fragmented (inter)national regulations, 22 October
Private International Law and Intellectual Property: The ILA Kyoto Guidelines, 15 October
Book Launch of Law and Justice in Malaysia: 2020 and Beyond, 7 October
Unilateralism in (International) Economic Law: The Case of Special Economic Zones, 8 September
Pandemic Pressure Points: Economics, Governance and Society in Japan, 25 August - webinar recording and event summary
Book Launch: International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration – Australia and Japan in Regional and Global Contexts, 17 June
Covid-19 in Asia: Law and Policy Contexts - China, Japan, Indonesia, and Malaysia in focus, 27 May -webinar recording and event summary.
Webinar: Asia-Pacific Commercial Dispute Resolution in the Aftermath of the Pandemic, 12 March
Webinar & Book Launch: New Frontiers in Asia-Pacific International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution, 25 February

2020

China-Australia FTA after COVID-19: Tariff to Technology - 27 August
New Frontiers in International Arbitration for the Asia-Pacific Region, 17 June
National Security Law of Hong Kong: Legal and Social Implications, 23 July
Beyond the Pandemic: New Frontiers in Asia-Pacific International Dispute Resolution, 4 August - related article by Prof Luke Nottage: Clive Palmer versus (Western) Australia. He could survive a High Court loss if his company is found to be "foreign"

Featured news

Corruption and Foreign Direct Investment in the Asia-Pacific region

CAPLUS members contributed to the Academic perspectives on corruption and foreign direct investment in the Asia-Pacific region symposium hosted by Universiti Brunei Darussalam on 29 May 2023.

The symposium's invited speakers discussed the mechanism of FDI-related corruption from legal and economic perspectives, using case studies from countries in the Asia Pacific.

Professor Luke Nottage delivered the keynote lecture, moderated a discussion on the legal issues related to corruption and ISDS in Asia, and co-presented a country report on Japan and Thailand.

Country reports were also presented by Professor Vivienne Bath and Ms Tianqi Gu (China and Hong Kong) and Professor Simon Butt (Indonesia).

CAPLUS affiliate Dr Nobumichi Teramura delivered the symposium’s opening remarks, co-presented a country report on Japan, and moderated a discussion on South and Southeast Asia.