People

Professor Luke Nottage (BCA, LLB, PhD VUW, LLM Kyoto) specialises in arbitration, contract law and consumer product safety law, with a particular interest in Japan and the Asia-Pacific. He is Professor of Comparative and Transnational Business Law at Sydney Law School, founding Co-Director of the Australian Network for Japanese Law and Associate Director of the Centre for Asian and Pacific Law at the University of Sydney (CAPLUS). Luke’s publications include Product Safety and Liability Law in Japan (Routledge, 2004), Corporate Governance in the 21st Century: Japan’s Gradual Transformation (Elgar, 2008), Asia-Pacific Disaster Management (Springer, 2014), International Investment Treaties and Arbitration Across Asia (Brill, 2018) and Contract Law in Japan (Wolters Kluwer, 2019). He has or had executive roles in the Australia-Japan Society (NSW), the Law Council of Australia’s International Law Section, the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, and the Australasian Forum for International Arbitration. Luke has also consulted for law firms world-wide, ASEAN, the EC, the OECD, the UNDP and the Japanese government, and is Special Counsel with Williams Trade Law. Engagement with media and parliamentary inquries, and other news, can be found on the Japanese Law and the Asia-Pacific blog.

Dr Heather Roberts is an Associate Professor at the ANU Law School at the Australian National University, teaching in constitutional law, property law, and legal history. After graduating with her honours degrees in Asian Studies/Law at ANU, she worked as a solicitor at Freehills, practicing in property law and government contracting, and in 2018 co-authored the 4th edition of Property Law in New South Wales (LexisNexis). Her current research focuses on the intersections between legal reasoning and judicial biography, and in 2017 she was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award for the project titled The Ideal Judge exploring the changing perceptions of judges and judging in Australia as recorded through courts’ ceremonial archives.

Ana Ubilava is a part-time academic at the University of Sydney Law School teaching Public International Law. Her area of research is investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) with a focus on investor-state mediation. Ana holds a PhD degree in law from the University of Sydney (Australia), LLM in Business and Commercial Law from the University of Manchester (UK) and LLB from the Tbilisi State University (Georgia). Before moving to Australia, Ana worked at the Tbilisi City Hall of Georgia as a lawyer and subsequently as the Deputy Mayor’s Chief of Staff.

Melanie Trezise is a PhD candidate in Law at the University of Sydney, investigating issues around legal personality for artificial intelligence. She also works as an editor, translator and researcher. Led by curiosity along the scenic routes, she has previously spent some time as a commercial lawyer in Tokyo, developed policy and organisational compliance solutions for local government, and has moonlighted as a film extra. She obtained her Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) and Law (Hons I) at the University of Sydney and completed her Masters of Law (Sociology of Law) at Kyoto University, Japan. She has been connected with ANJeL in various capacities since its inception.

Leon Wolff is Professor of Global Business Law at the Graduate School of Law, Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan. Leon is a three-time graduate of the University of Queensland with first class honours and university medals in Arts and Law (BA and LLB) and a Master of Arts in Japanese Interpreting and Translation (MAJIT). He also completed a Master of Laws in Asian and Comparative Law at the University of Washington as a Fulbright Scholar, and a Master of Education (Higher Education) at the University of Sydney. He is a NAATI-accredited interpreter and translator, a NMAS-accredited Mediator, a lawyer admitted in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). Leon’s research focuses on Japanese law and society, with publications on corporate governance, employment rights, legal system reform and litigiousness in Japan. Leon is a co-founder and a former director of the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL).

Professor Kent Anderson is an international lawyer who specialises in comparing Asian legal systems. In 2021 he was appointed to the role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Global at the University of Newcastle. He has an eclectic background, having completed tertiary studies in US, Japan, and the UK in Law, Politics, Economics and Asian Studies. He also worked as a marketing manager with a US regional airline in Alaska and as a commercial lawyer in Hawaii. From 2014-18, Professor Anderson was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Engagement) at the University of Western Australia and prior to that held the role of Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) at the University of Adelaide. He has also worked in the higher education sector at ANU where he was the Foundation Director of the School of Culture, History and Language and as an Associate Professor in Law at Hokkaido University. Prof Anderson is a founding Co-Director (and now Advisory Board member) of ANJeL. He is on the New Colombo Plan Advisory Board, the Board of Canberra Grammar School, and a variety of academic and community boards including the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities (LCNAU). He believes in the ABC of life: brewing his own Ales, listening to the Blues and playing sport with his Child. Having grown up in Alaska, he said WA feels familiar, with an important Indigenous community, big open spaces, vibrant local arts scene and a resource-driven economy. And having spent 20 years in Alaska where temperatures dive to -45C, he is enjoying thawing out in Perth’s beautiful sunshine.

Professor Dr Harald Baum was formerly a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Japan Department at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany; Priv.Doz., University of Hamburg; Research Associate, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium; Founding and Executive Editor: Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht / Journal of Japanese Law (ZJapanR, which ANJeL now collaborates in); and Vice-president, German-Japanese Association of Jurists (an ANJeL affiliate). Dr Baum is an expert in comparative commercial law, with numerous publications on business law, corporate governance, takeovers, and capital markets regulation in Germany, the EU, Japan, and the USA, comparative law, and private international law.

Mr. Tokuda assumed his current role, as the Consul-General of Japan in Sydney, in September 2022. Prior to arriving in Australia, Mr. Tokuda was the Deputy Assistant Minister and Deputy Director-General of the European Affairs Bureau at MOFA Headquarters in Tokyo, covering Russia and former Soviet Union countries. His previous overseas postings include the Embassy of Japan in the United Kingdom from 2003-2005, and three postings at the Embassy of Japan in Moscow from 1993-96, 2005-2008 and 2018-20. He has also held various positions within MOFA in the International Cooperation Bureau and Foreign Policy Bureau and also was seconded twice to the Ministry of Finance (Budget Bureau and International Bureau). Mr. Tokuda speaks Russian and English. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo in 1990. He is married with three children. He loves skiing, walking and cycling.

Masako Kamiya, a graduate of Tokyo University, is Professor of Law at Gakushuin University, specialising in Anglo-Commonwealth and American constitutional law. She also teaches Legal Informatics and American Law at the new Law School at Gakushuin University.

Akira Kawamura is a partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, one of Tokyo’s largest law firms, and has an extensive general corporate and litigation practice with numerous large multinational domestic and foreign clients. He specializes in corporate, M&A, intellectual property, international trade, entertainment, publication, energy and real property law. He is a corporate auditor [kansayaku] and board member [torishimariyaku] of a number of Japanese companies, and is also an experienced arbitrator/mediator. He is also an influential member of the Japanese Bar, having served as Executive Vice President of the Dai-ni Tokyo Bar Association, Executive Director of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren) and Chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations’ Foreign Lawyers and International Legal Practice Committee. He was a Visiting Professor from 2001-2003 at Kyoto University’s Faculty of Law, where he graduated with an LLB in 1965. Akira Kawamura also obtained a LLM from the University of Sydney in 1979, and trained at a law firm in Australia. His publications (as editor-in-chief/author) include Australia Law and Business (1979) and Law and Business in Japan (new ed, 2000).

Professor Carolyn Stevens is the Director of the Japanese Studies Centre at Monash University and is a Principal Fellow at the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne. Originally trained as an anthropologist, over the last twenty years she has published books and articles on Japanese culture and society including a focus on social problems and Japanese law, such as social welfare, citizenship and statelessness, and most recently disability welfare and policy. She is involved with teaching the Asian Studies and International Studies programs as well as the Japanese language program at Monash University. She is also currently the Editor in Chief of the interdisciplinary journal Japanese Studies. Recent publications include Disability in Japan (2013) and Internationalising Japan (2014, co-edited with J. Breaden and S. Steele).

Veronica L. Taylor is Professor of Law and Regulation at the Australian National University (ANU), where she also directs the ANU Japan Institute. Her work focusses on regulatory justice, rule of law, and corporate governance issues in Japan and Asia. She is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo where she teaches South East Asian Business Law. She teaches negotiation and arbitration and coaches the national Team Australia for Japan’s Intercollegiate Negotiation and Arbitration Competition, held annually in Tokyo: http://www.negocom.jp/eng/

Professor Taylor serves on the Board of the Australia-Japan Foundation (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), the Board of the Foundation for Australia-Japan Studies and the Executive of the Australia-Japan Business Cooperation Committee. She was previously Dean of the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

She received the Japanese Foreign Minister’s Citation in 2017.

https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/taylor-v

Ian Williams is a professional director and provides strategic advice to Japanese and Australian companies on bilateral and regional operations. He was a partner at global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, advising Japanese corporations on mergers & acquisitions and joint ventures in the Australian mining, industrial, infrastructure and agri-business sectors. He also previously worked with Kobe Steel in Japan for 5 years. He holds bachelor degrees in law and economics from the University of Sydney and a post-graduate diploma in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford. Ian is Vice-President of the Australia Japan Business Cooperation Committee and a non-executive director of New Hope Corporation (ASX:NHC). Ian represented both Australia and Japan in rugby union.

Malcolm Smith was the Dean of Comparative Asian Law in Australia. Educated at University of Melbourne and Harvard, he went on to establish the Asian Law Centres at both University of British Columbia and University of Melbourne, where he was Foundation Professor of Asian Law. In 2004, he joined Chuo University Law School as Professor of Asian Law. Mal was a founding Advisor to ANJeL and one of its most dedicated supporters. Malcolm Smith passed away in July 2006.

Kimihiro Hino is an Associate Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering of the University of Tokyo. His research interests include Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), Housing, and Urban Planning. He currently serves as an adviser for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the Fukuoka Prefectural Police. During his visit to the University of Sydney Law School, he will work closely with Dr. Garner Clancey on the current research topic.

Shohei Eto is an Associate Professor of Law at Hitotsubashi National University, Tokyo. He specializes in constitutional law, legal philosophy, and legal history. After graduating from the University of Tokyo Law School in 2008 with Magna cum laude honours, he worked as an Associate Attorney at Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu, practicing in corporate law and M&A. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 2011 and received LL.M at Columbia Law School in 2012. His current research focuses on the development of Australian constitutionalism in comparison with Japanese constitutionalism. During his visit to the University of Sydney Law School, he will work closely with Dr. Jeffrey Gordon on the current research topic.

Professor Aoi is a Professor of Constitutional Law at Gakushuin University School of Law, Tokyo. Her major fields of research are Constitutional Litigation in Japan and Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which renounces war. She is keenly interested in how constitutional provision plays-out in daily life, and its influence over political and legal mechanisms. Her research aim at the ANU College of law is on the ACT's Human Rights Act, especially on how it has been utilized in the judicial process.

Marc Dernauer is an Associate Professor at the faculty of law at Chūō University in Tōkyō, teaching civil law, intellectual property law, German law, and comparative law. In his research, he is in particular interested in the various influences on Japanese private law, in particular in the field of contract law, from continental European and Anglo-American legal traditions alike. At present, he studies the different structures of contract regulation in various countries and compares them with Japanese law.

Towa Niimura is a professor at Seikei University Law School in Tokyo and teaches constitutional law. Her current academic interests are effective meaning of democracy, citizenship, legal function of state and society, central/de-central system of the state and administrative regulation. Supported by a Humboldt Research Fellowship as a visiting professor she researched public law at Heidelberg University and Munich University and gave lectures at several universities in Germany.

Stacey Steele is Associate Director (Japan) of the Asian Law Centre (ALC), ANJeL’s inaugural affiliate. She was appointed Program Convener to organise the ANJeL-ALC Judges-in-Residence program. Stacey joined the Asian Law Centre at the Law School of the University of Melbourne in 1997 as a research associate and was appointed Associate Director (Japan) in January 2002. Born in Brisbane, Stacey holds degrees from the University of Queensland (BA (Japan)), Monash University (MA (Japan)) and the University of Melbourne (LLB (Hons) and LLM (by thesis)). Stacey commenced articles in March 2000 at a leading Australian commercial law firm and worked as a senior associate in its financial services group, focusing on project/infrastructure and corporate finance. In October 2007, Stacey joined Standard and Poor’s Melbourne office as Associate General Counsel with responsibilities for the Asia-Pacific. Stacey has taught Corporate Banking and Finance Law, as well as Issues in Japanese Law and in graduate subjects offered by the Centre. She recently co-edited Legal education in Asia: Globalization, Change and Contexts (Routledge, 2010). Her other research interests include Japanese insolvency law, law reform, the Japanese legal system and banking law. Stacey practices Chanoyu (The Way of Tea) and is a member of the Urasenke Melbourne Chapter. Stacey is fluent in Japanese.

Micah Burch is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney. He was appointed Program Co-Convenor (Teaching and Learning) to assist with ANJeL’s educational activities. Micah specialises in taxation law. Prior to academia, Micah practiced at large corporate law firms in New York City and co-founded a publishing house specialising in translations of popular Japanese books. A former Fulbright Fellow in Japan and graduate of Princeton University (East Asian Studies) and Harvard Law School, Micah habitually teaches and lectures in Japan.

James is a Lecturer at the ANU College of Law, ANJeL Program Co-Convenor (Teaching and Learning) for Mooting, and lead coach for Team Australia at the annual Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition in Tokyo. James was previously an Associate Professor at Sophia University (where he remains a Visiting Lecturer) and Project Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo, and has held visiting academic positions at Meiji and Waseda Universities in Tokyo. James read English and European Law at the University of Oxford (St Catherine's College) and wrote his PhD thesis in the comparative law of trusts at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He teaches and writes principally in the areas of English and Japanese private law and comparative law theory, with a secondary research profile in law and the humanities, focusing on contemporary Japanese culture. He is the co-author (with Professor Giorgio Fabio Colombo) of Japanese Law and Literature.

Souichirou Kozuka is Professor of Law at Gakushuin University Law Faculty, Tokyo. He was appointed Program Convener to coordinate ANJeL activities in Tokyo and Kanto area of Japan. Professor Kozuka specialises in commercial law, with special interest in distribution agreements; transport law, including maritime and aerial law; competition/intellectual property interface; and regulation of financial institutions. He taught formerly at Chiba University (1995–1998) and Sophia University Law School and has been acting as Correspondent of Unidroit (the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law) since 2001 and as a member of IBA (International Bar Association), business law section, since 2002. He was ANJeL research visitor in February 2005.

Makoto Ibusuki is Professor of Law at Seijo University, Tokyo. He was appointed Program Convener to coordinate ANJeL activities in Kyoto and Kansai area of Japan. Dr Makoto Ibusuki was professor of criminal procedure at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, when he was an ANJeL Research Visitor in 2003. He is also a pioneer in cyberlaw research and teaching both in and outside of Japan, a founding director of the Hojohogakkai (Association for Legal Informatics) and a key member of a study group promoting IT issues in Japan's current wave of reforms to criminal and civil justice. Professor Ibusuki formerly taught in the Faculty of Law and Policy, Kagoshima University in Kyushu (1990-2002) and at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto (2002-2008). He holds a Ph.D. in law from Hokkaido University (1990), a LLM from Kanazawa University (1984); and a LLB from Shimane University (1982). His major area of research and writing is cyberspace law and criminal procedure. He was ANJeL research visitor in 2003 and a visiting scholar at the John Marshall Law School, Chicago from September 1997 – July 1998.

Stephen Green is a law professor and coordinates ANJeL activities in Kansai. He has a LLM (International Economic and Business Law) from Kyushu University; a LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University; and a BSc (Hons) from the University of Western Australia.

Dr Nobumichi (Nobu) Teramura is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Asian Studies, University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and Affiliate at the University of Sydney Law School Centre for Asian and Pacific Law (CAPLUS), specialising in business law, with a particular interest in arbitration, private international law, contract law and Asian law. As an early-career academic, he is passionate about teaching international business law, international dispute resolution, and contract law. He has taught private international law and commercial law as a Lecturer at the Adelaide Law School in Australia (2019). He has lectured at the College of Law of De La Salle University in the Philippines in 2016, 2017 and 2019 on international arbitration and trade law. In addition, Nobu has teaching and research experience in Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Cambodia. He is active in developing institutional academic links among these countries, not only for himself, but also for his colleagues and students, to contribute to promoting legal dialogue among countries in the Asia-Pacific.

Nobu’s recent books include New Frontiers in Asia-Pacific International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution (eds, Wolters Kluwer, 2021) and Ex Aequo et Bono as a Response to the Over-judicialisation of International Commercial Arbitration (Wolters Kluwer, 2021). His recent journal articles include ‘Japan as a Source of Legal Ideas: A View from the Mekong Subregion of ASEAN’ (2021) 13 New Voices in Japanese Studies 19. He is currently working on Cambodian Private International Law (Hart Publishing, expected 2025).

Trevor Ryan is an Assistant Professor at the University of Canberra Faculty of Law. He teaches Legal Theory and Constitutional Law. His other research interests include the relationship between law and demographic change, theories of regulation and activism, and various topics in Japanese law. He has also published a novel about Japanese law, Dear Judge Ichiro. Trevor was a visiting scholar at Chuo University from 2006–2008.

Giorgio Fabio Colombo is Associate Professor of Law at the Graduate School of Law of Nagoya University, where he is in charge of Comparative private law and International commercial arbitration. Before that he was Visiting researcher at Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto), Adjunct Professor of Japanese Law at “Ca’ Foscari” University of Venice, Italy and Research fellow of Comparative law at the University of Pavia. His research focuses on ADR, Arbitration, Private comparative law, Law and literature, and legal cultures.