Sunday, August 9, 2020

Australia's judicial officers not members of the ASEAN Law Association, but the NSW Law Soc's College Of Law will formulate and teach "ASEAN Law"?

by Ganesh Sahathevan


The ASEAN Law Association  was established in 1979. It  is a non-governmental organisation that brings together the ASEAN legal fraternity of judges, government and practising lawyers and teachers of law. Its objectives include:


    1. in the study of and research in the laws of the ASEAN countries with a view to harmonizing those laws as required by the social and economic development of theASEAN region;


Its members comprise judges, including chief justices, from all the ASEAN countries. Its current president The Chief Justice Of Singapore, Mr Justice Sundaresh Menon. 


Australia is not represented in any way at the Association.How then the NSW Law Society's College Of Law is going to formulate or teach ASEAN law is difficult to see. 


 TO BE READ WITH 



Sunday, August 2, 2020


Australia's College Of Law will formulate and teach "ASEAN Law", surpassing NUS and other leading ASEAN law schools, and setting the stage for Australian arbitrators to corner the market in ASEAN Law disputes

by Ganesh Sahathevan


bar council
This offering appears to have been suspended



Top tier international law firm JonesDay  summaries the state of play with regards "ASEAN Law" : 


A key obstacle to investment in the ASEAN region is the patchwork of laws governing business insolvency and reorganization, with different approaches and philosophies, creating uncertainty and inefficiency for growing cross-border investment.

Meanwhile Australia's College Of Law will formulate and teach "ASEAN Law", surpassing NUS and other leading law schools in the ASEAN region:


MASTER OF LAWS (APPLIED LAW) IN ASEAN+6 LEGAL PRACTICE



Understanding the context in cross-border practice is essential for ASEAN lawyers.Whether you want to expand your knowledge of cross-border practice or enhance your career opportunities, our cross-border subjects are the first of their kind. 

The College of Law and The Law Society of Singapore have committed to develop and deliver legal education and training programmes to meet the needs of the legal profession in Singapore. This shared commitment was marked by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Gregory Vijayendran SC, President of Law Society, and Neville Carter, Group Chief Executive Officer of The College of Law, on 19 March 2018 in Singapore.

Gregory Vijayendran SC described the collaboration with The College of Law as historic, as this is the first time the Law Society has collaborated with a legal education provider. The collaboration will drive thought leadership in legal education policy and aims to develop a wide range of courses, with a series of subjects involving ASEAN law to start with.
Naturally, given such ground breaking work lawyers in the ASEAN region will be silly to not choose Australia and in particular Sydney as  their preferred forum for arbitration.


Meanwhile, questions about the College's work in Malaysia, a leading common law jurisdiction within ASEAN, remain unanswered. 

TO BE READ WITH 




Bar Council education ‘JV’ must be clarified

By  , in Scandal on July 19, 2019 . Tagged width:  ,  , 

KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 – The Malaysian Bar Council launched its first education venture, a LLM in Malaysian Legal Practise (LLM), last year in collaboration with the College Of Law Australia.
The LLM does not seem to have the approval of Malaysia’s Legal Professional Qualifying Board (LPQB) but the website for the course, which is hosted in Australia, prominently displays the Bar Council crest.
bar council
The crest has not been used before to promote a course of study, and queries put to Bar Council President Fareed Gafoor about the use of the crest have been acknowledged but remain unanswered.
NMT has however sighted an email from Fareed dated Friday, May 24, 2019 with regards the LLM and the use of the crest where he states:
Dear Rajen,
We can’t remain silent on this.
Abdul Fareed Bin Abdul Gafoor
Sent from my iPad
It is understood that “Rajen” refers to  Rajen Devaraj, Chief Executive Officer of the Bar Council Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur.
The Bar has remained silent for nearly 2 months since.
Key person suddenly retired during extensive query
The College of Law used to be represented in Malaysia by its Director, Peter Tritt. Tritt have been queried extensively about the LLM and about the College’s business in Malaysia but has refused to provide answers. Tritt has been based in Kuala Lumpur since 2017 but announced on Friday that he had “retired” from the College on 30 June 2019.
It is understood that Tritt has forwarded queries sent him to his head office in Sydney and hence it appears that Tritt is under orders from his Chief Executive, Neville Carter, to remain silent.
Questionable advertising claims?
In advertising on the College’s website Carter has claimed that he had established a Professional Legal Training course for Malaysian Law students seeking admission to practise in Malaysia. There seems to be no evidence of such a course, or of any national level training course for the existing Certificate of Legal Practise.
Carter has also claimed to have produced the “inaugural” Handbook in Legal Practise for Malaysia, in the late 80s. A search of the main law libraries in Malaysia directed by the Chief Registrar, Federal Court Malaysia, has not found any such handbook.
He has also claimed to have, during that time to have identified and addressed “gaps” in Malaysian legal practise, but not even those in practice during that period and since have ever heard of him. Nor are senior practitioners aware of  “gaps” that needed that to be addressed by external consultants.
As CEO of the College Carter  has ultimate responsibility for the College’s Malaysian operation headed by Tritt and variously named the “College Of Law Asia Pacific” and the “College Of Law Asia”. A search by NMT has not revealed any entities registered under those names in Malaysia or in Australia, not even a foreign entities registered to conduct business in Malaysia.
Meanwhile the College, in collaboration with the Bar Council continues to sell its LLM and other courses in Malaysia, deriving a fee income from Malaysian courses.
-NMT


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