Asia is of increasing relevance to both practising lawyers and policymakers. With Australasian law firms expanding their network of offices into Asian countries and government departments increasingly linking up with their Asian counterparts, there is growing demand for 'Asia-literate' lawyers. This course provides students with the suite of skills necessary to successfully navigate Asian laws and legal institutions. The course reminds students of the dangers of uncritically projecting their own values and assumptions about law onto Asia. Thus, the first part of the course explores a wide range of theoretical concepts to equip students with a new framework for interpreting and engaging with Asian law. The second part of the course invites student to apply these concepts to a contemporary issue in Asian law - either a commercial law or human rights issue, depending on student interest - to enable students to exercise these new skills in context. By the end of the course, students will be able to question whether or not traditional comparative law method is suitable for analysing Asian law and devise their own framework for solving Asia-related practice and policy problems.

Asian Law

None

The aim of this course to prepare you to be an 'Asia-literate' lawyer. To be 'literate' in Asian law, you need a 'vocabulary' (or framework) for interpreting, navigating and critiquing the legal systems of Asia. The challenge for you in this course, therefore, is to be able to define, defend and apply your own model of 'Asia-literate' lawyering so that you can engage sensibly with the legal regulation of political, economic and social rights in Asia.

You have great flexibility in determining the assessment scheme in this course. The only assessment that all students must undertake is online participation (20%). Your chosen assessment scheme must suit the learning outcomes you have articulated. There is some variation in the available assessment options and their weighting, but the following is indicative of the range of assessment options you may select: