Dr James Fisher

Overview

James joined Melbourne Law School as a Senior Lecturer in 2026. He was previously Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University (2022-2026), Associate Professor at Sophia University (2020-2022), and Project Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo (2015-2020). He has also held adjunct or visiting positions at Meiji University and Waseda University in Japan, and at the University of Hong Kong.

He holds degrees from the University of Oxford (BA Jurisprudence) and Utrecht University (PhD).

James teaches and researches across Anglo-Australian private law, comparative law theory and Japanese legal studies, with secondary research profiles in law and literature and Queer legal studies.

His private law scholarship appears in field-leading publications such as the Modern Law Review, Modern Studies in Property Law, and Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, and has been cited by courts of final appeal in Singapore and New Zealand and by statutory law reform bodies in the UK. His Japan-focused work appears in the principal specialist periodical, the Journal of Japanese Law/Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht and as comparative contributions to Public Law, the Hong Kong Law Journal and the Iowa Law Review. James is the author of forthcoming monograph Making Trusts Civilised: the Japanese Trust as Legal Transplant (Hart, 2027) and co-author with Professor Giorgio Fabio Colombo of Japanese Law and Literature (Routledge, 2027).

James is Associate Director (Japan) at the Asian Law Centre, Program Co-Convenor (Teaching and Learning) for the Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL) and coach for the intervarsity national Australian team which competes annually at the Intercollegiate Negotiation & Arbitration Competition in Tokyo.

Other School and University Responsibilities

Associate Director (Japan), Asian Law Centre

Competitions Co-Ordinator

Memberships and Affiliations

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of the European Law Institute
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
• Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society (FRAS)
• Program Co-Convenor (Teaching and Learning), Australian Network for Japanese Law (ANJeL)