[On 10 April 2024, following my submission and then oral evidence given to the Australian parliament inquiring into the AANZFTA Second Protocol ratification, I wrote as follows to the respective Trade Ministers of Australia (Hon Don Farrell) and New Zealand (Hon Todd McClay). I may update this posting if and when any responses are received ..read more

On 21 August 2023 Australia signed, with New Zealand and the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Second Protocol to Amend the Agreement Establishing the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Area (AANZFTA), after announcing in November 2022 substantial conclusion of the free trade agreement (FTA) review that had commenced in ..read more

[This is the title of the 6th Annual ADR Address for the Supreme Court of New South Wales, co-organised by the Australian Disputes Centre. It was orginally to be presented on 2 November 2023 but my e-bike accident meant deferring it until 22 February 2024! The public lecture includes several comparisons to developments in Japan ..read more

This hybrid-format 14 February 2024 seminar in Tokyo was planned primarily by the “Japan Arbitration Club” formed recently among younger arbitration experts and afficionados, led by Carlotta Bruessel (now with Nishimura & Asahi, Japan’s largest law firm, and previously working in Canberra and Sydney) who also moderated this seminar. My co-panellists included Eriko Kadota, now ..read more

Congratulations to University of Sydney Law School LLB and JD students Michelle Chen Daniel Hu, Kim Nguyen and Sean Yalcinkaya. They combined with other students mostly from ANU to form “Team Australia”, which again came second in the INC negotiation  and arbitration competition held over 9-10 December 2023 in Japan (this time pipped by UTokyo ..read more

Congratulations to University of Sydney Law School LLB and JD students Michelle Chen Daniel Hu, Kim Nguyen and Sean Yalcinkaya. They combined with other students mostly from ANU to form “Team Australia”, which again came second in the INC negotiation  and arbitration competition held over 9-10 December 2023 in Japan (this time pipped by UTokyo ..read more

[This is the title of the 6th Annual ADR Address for the Supreme Court of New South Wales, co-organised by the Australian Disputes Centre, which I will present on 2 November 2023. The public lecture includes several comparisons to developments in Japan and other Asian countries. Registration and other information regarding this lecture event, including ..read more

As part of the Japanaroo suite of events, ANJeL is delighted to coordinate at Sydney Law School the two free public seminars below, both including a strong comparative focus on Japan and Australia, and involving a former Chief Justice of Victoria. One on Thursday 21 September compares arbitration’s historical trajectory (hybrid-format seminar, including two ANJeL program convenors based abroad – register via https://law-events.sydney.edu.au/events/intarbitrationaujp). The second on Friday 22 September compares sports law and dispute resolution (generally and with baseball as a major case study ..read more

[This is a draft of a Review Essay of a new edition textbook, comparing mainly developments in Australia. The Trans-Tasman developments in consumer law can be usefully compared to those in Asia including Japan, which Prof Souichirou Kozuka and I recently compared with Australia.] Kate Tokeley and Victoria Stace (eds) Consumer Law in New Zealand (3rd ed 2022, LexisNexis NZ Ltd, Wellington) lxxii + 769pp This rich and authoritative textbook deserves a wide readership among researchers, practitioners and policy-makers also beyond New Zealand, especially in Australia – but potentially too across A ..read more

ANJeL is delighted to join in congratulating its member and longstanding supporter the Hon Tom Bathurst AC KC, former Chief Justice of New South Wales and now King’s Counsel with 6 Selbourne Wentworth Chambers, for being awarded recently this year a very high Honour from the Emperor on the advice of the Japanese Government. Very few jurists have been accorded this Honour, but among them are French law reform advisor and professor Gustave Emile Boissonade (1825–1910) and former High Court of Australia justice the Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG (awarded in 2017). Photos from the conferment ceremony, a ..read more