Law and society in Asia and the Pacific

Building on multi-year field research among the Vietnamese minority in Cambodia, our research and engagement project has been addressing statelessness among this minority population since 2008. Working in close collaboration with local civil society and university partners, our research examines the nature, scope and impact of statelessness in affected communities.

From 2022 to 2023, the project will specifically explore the nexus between poverty and statelessness, in collaboration with the Raul Wallenberg Institute’s Cambodia program. It will also promote awareness-raising and capacity development among key stakeholders in Cambodia.

Visit our blog for more information.

Researchers

• Dr Christoph Sperfeldt

795 million people are undernourished, and they mostly rely on small farmers for food. To protect these farmers from the twin challenges of multinational agribusiness and climate change, this interdisciplinary project aims to:

• examine the ways small farmers identify, conserve and exchange useful plant material and incorporate it into cultivated crops through plant selection and breeding under conditions of climate change
• identify the ways regulatory structures in India and Indonesia help or hinder this process
• identify opportunities for the application of such local knowledge and its regulatory framework in Australia.

A better understanding of local conditions will benefit regulators, NGOs, businesses and aid agencies.

Visit our Food security project site for more information.

Researchers

• Professor Christoph Antons

This project will provide an independent assessment of the development of the Indonesian intellectual property system over the past thirty years.

Economic theory suggests pathways to innovation and ‘tipping points’ in IP development based on the experiences of a few technology trailblazing economies. Based on an independent assessment of the development of the Indonesian intellectual property system over the past thirty years, this project shows the introduction and operation of IP in Indonesia as a typical example for middle income developing countries and newcomers to the IP system.

Our project analyses hundreds of court decisions that have recently become available, dozens of implementing laws and the institutions supporting IP. We show the bargaining processes about the future of the system between the government and foreign investors as well as citizens and between different institutions, thereby providing valuable information to Australian businesses and the government.

Visit our IP system project site for more information.

Researchers

• Professor Christoph Antons

Political instability and the rise of illiberal governance models together with the enactment of national security legislation, shrinking civic spaces and restrictions on media freedom pose new challenges for the operating environment in which judges adjudicate disputes.

This initiative examines the current state of the rule of law and judicial independence in selective jurisdictions in Asia including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia.

The initiative also explores the implications of these developments on access to justice for minority groups, focusing on the current and future landscape of legal protection and access to justice for LGBTI+ people in the region.

This project includes an expert roundtable with support from the American Bar Association (ABA) Rule of Law Initiative.

Researchers

• Dr Amy Barrow
• Professor Surya Deva