A/Professor Stacey Steele recently caught up with Melbourne Law School LLM graduate 2017, Shawn Guoqing Xu now based in Guangdong, China

This workshop aims to lay the foundation for further research on Indian administrative law and promote work in this vital field, especially amongst early career researchers.

Death row Bali Nine members will file reapplication for consideration of their good behaviour as one of their last legal options, says Indonesian law expert Tim Lindsey.

Associate Director (India) of the Asian Law Centre and JD Lecturer on 'Law and Legal Practice in Asia' (2017) at Melbourne Law School, Associate Professor Farrah Ahmed, is part of a global team of exceptional scholars to edit the newly launched Indian Law Review in 2017.

This conference aims to bring together postgraduate students, from around Australia and overseas, who are researching topics relating to Islam.

This workshop aims to bring together postgraduate students from Australia and New Zealand who are researching topics relating to Vietnamese legal studies.

Drugs Law and Legal Practice in Southeast Asia co-authored by Centre for Indonesian Law, Islam and Society Director, Professor Tim Lindsey and Asian Law Centre Director, Professor Pip Nicholson, investigates criminal law and practice relevant to drugs regulation in three Southeast Asian jurisdictions: Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.

The ALC hosted two prominent visitors from the Supreme Court of Japan's General Secretariat Family Bureau at the beginning of February.

Melbourne Law School's Asian Law Centre last week welcomed more than a dozen Chuo Law School students, marking the 10th anniversary of the cross-cultural legal education partnership.

Sarah Mercer, Research Assistant for the Korea Program of the ALC, has recently been interning with the Australian Permanent Mission to the UN for the 28th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. She had the privilege to make a statement on behalf of Australia regarding our technical cooperation for inclusive and participatory development in our region.

The lowering of Japan's voting age, coupled with Shinzo Abe's controversial reform agenda, may see a stirring among Japanese students, write Stacey Steele (Associate Director, Japan) and Aya Haruyama (Research Assistant) in Asian Currents.

Indonesia could become a pioneer in the abolition of capital punishment and an example for other Muslim countries to follow, according to former Indonesian judge Professor Jimly Asshiddiqie.

The University of Melbourne has recently launched the Indonesia at Melbourne blog, a new platform for analysis, research and commentary on contemporary Indonesia by academics, experts and students affiliated with the university.

In March 2015, the Law Faculties of the University of Melbourne, the National University of Singapore, and the University of Oxford offered a program delivering lectures on the common law to four universities in China: Shanghai Jiaotong (Shanghai), Fudan (Shanghai), Tsinghua University (Beijing) and Peking University (Beijing).

The Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne and National Law University, Delhi hosted a workshop and conference on 10-12 April, 2015 at National Law University, Delhi, India. The very generous support of Mr Allan Myers AO QC and Mrs Maria Myers AO made these events possible. The co-convenors were Associate Professor Tarunabh Khaitan (Oxford), Dr Farrah Ahmed (Melbourne) and Dr Anup Surendranath (National Law University, Delhi).

In this first half of the year, we have hosted two visiting student groups. The first visitors came to us from OP Jindal Global University (JGU) arriving in early January to a Melbourne heat wave of 40 degrees. The students rushed out to buy fans. They had not expected Melbourne to rival Delhi's heat.

Professor Tim Lindsey has been recognised by the University for his advocacy and engagement in the Bali Nine convictions case.

Dr Amanda Whiting (Associate Director (Malaysia)) has recently published some articles about Malaysia.

'The Death Penalty in SE Asia: Is there a Trend towards Abolition?' by Professor Pip Nicholson has been published in The Conversation.

In early 2015, we welcomed two new ALC members to the team: Associate Professor Sunita Jogarajan and Professor Susan Kneebone. Please find below profiles of these new ALC members, together with the profile of a longstanding member of the ALC, Associate Professor Cally Jordan.

Associate Professor Sunita Jogarajan has been involved in research in Asia for the length of her academic career.

Associate Professor Cally Jordan brings two decades of professional and academic experience in Asia to Melbourne Law School and the ALC.

Professor Susan Kneebone, previously a Professor at Monash University, joins the Melbourne Law School and the Asian Law Centre after a long and distinguished involvement in Asia.

We are pleased to advise that the latest issue (volume 15 number 2) of the Australian Journal of Asian Law is now available on-line.

The ALC welcomed students from Chuo Law School to the ALC, together with Professor Dan Rosen and Professor Chuck Ito, from 23 February to 6 March, 2015.

On 27 February 2015, the Sports Law Program and the ALC co-hosted a Sports Law and Integrity Workshop at K and L Gates. This article provides a summary of the event, including a key presentation by Mr Andrew Menz from Betfair Australia, who has qualified for Melbourne Law School's Graduate Diploma in Sports Law.

Judge In Deok Seo, Judge of the Daegu District Court in Korea and currently a Visiting Research Scholar at the ALC, spoke about the Korean judicial system and the legal education reforms at a Brown Bag Seminar hosted by the ALC on 2 March 2015. Judge Seo's precis of his presentation appears below:

Richard Powell has recently passed his PhD with flying colours. His topic was on language use in Malaysian courts and the politics of de facto bilingualism (English-Malay) in a legal regime where Malay is the official language, but litigants often speak (only) a third or fourth language. Richard was co-supervised by Dr Amanda Whiting (Associate Director (Malaysia), ALC) and Professor Joseph Lo Bianco (Education / Linguistics).

Professor Tim Lindsey discusses the Australia-Indonesia relationship, and how a tougher response to an inexperienced Indonesian government would be the wrong move, particularly for the 'Bali Two'.

Generalisations about the death penalty in Southeast Asia suggest abolitionist sentiments are increasing, yet practices vary substantially, says Professor Pip Nicholson. Given the significance of the death penalty reform movement in the region, this activism must be understood in a local context.

Is it really the case that Indonesia is determined to execute drug offenders - both foreign and local - if they are caught in Indonesia, but will spend money to help Indonesian drug offenders avoid execution provided they are caught overseas?