Temasek Foundation and NUS jointly hosted the inaugural Asian Law Deans forum

08 Jul 2009

More than 45 top law deans and leaders from the region attended the inaugural Asian Law Deans' Forum on Legal Education, jointly hosted by NUS Law School and Temasek Foundation between 6 Jul and 8 July 2009. At the forum, they discussed how law schools can best prepare their students to face an increasingly globalised market for legal services.

Initiated by the School, the forum was made possible by a $500,000 gift from Temasek Foundation, Singapore and supported by the Asian Law Institute.

The distinguished participants came from over 30 institutions from East Asian non-OECD countries - including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Prof Tan Cheng Han, Dean of NUS Faculty of Law and Senior Counsel, described the forum as "an important development in Asian legal education, as it marks the first time that Deans from leading Asian law schools are gathering to discuss issues of importance relating to legal education, particularly at a time when many schools are fundamentally re-examining their existing models".

He added: "This forum would not have been possible without Temasek Foundation's generous funding and, perhaps more importantly, Temasek Foundation's vision in seeking out opportunities for contributing to regional capacity-building."

Apart from funding the Forum, Temasek Foundation's $500,000 gift will also be made available to NUS Law School for further collaboration with regional law schools that are committed to upgrading their institutional capacity in teaching policy and pedagogy over the next 2 years. One of the objectives of the forum is to identify such possible opportunities for collaboration to enhance educational leadership in law education in the region.

The Asian Law Deans Forum follows naturally from NUS Law School's leadership in matters of legal education. In 2004, the Law School organised a Symposium on the theme "Reflections on Legal Education" under the auspices of ASLI, which brought together over 40 scholars from 18 institutions. In recent years, faculty members have been active as consultants on topics relating to law curriculum design and review and law education pedagogy. The Asian Law Deans Forum will take this to a new level by gathering the leaders of institutions together with a view to facilitating opportunities for cross-institution collaboration and co-operation.

The support from Temasek Foundation, Singapore for the Asian Law Deans Forum is consistent with the Foundation's commitment to capacity-building in Asia through education.

Said Mr Benedict Cheong, Chief Executive Officer of Temasek Foundation, Singapore: "Beyond the forum, this programme will hopefully create an Asian network of leaders and institutions in legal education, where knowledge in educational leadership, curriculum development and best practices in the teaching of law can be shared for long-term institutional development."