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Introduction

We are pleased to announce that the Asian Law Institute (ASLI) and the Ahmad Ibrahim Kulliyyah of Laws, International Islamic University, Malaysia are holding the 7^th Annual ASLI conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 25^th and 26^th May 2010. We look forward to welcoming you at the conference and value your contribution to the ongoing success of this annual conference.

The 7^th ASLI Conference 2010

The purpose of this annual conference is to bring together scholars of Asian law from within and outside Asia to interact, share ideas and build collegial networks which may facilitate ongoing dialogue and research collaborations. In addition to the paper presentations and Distinguished Lecture, there will be a Research Forum, Poster Presentation and Young Scholars Workshop. We hope that the research forum will be widely used in the 7^th conference to bring together collaborators of various projects as discussed at the previous conference. Presenters and non-presenters are encouraged to connect with fellow academics before the conference and start thinking about potential research projects.

Two new initiatives this year are the Poster Presentation and the Young Scholars Workshop. The Poster Presentation is modeled on the life sciences and presenters are expected to prepare a poster outlining the key ideas they wish to discuss. Conference delegates will be free to wander around the room and discuss posters that interest them with the respective authors on Day Two of the conference. The Young Scholars Workshop will be run as a seventh parallel session with two senior academics acting as chair and commentator.

The conference format remains broadly the same as last year: there will be five rounds of six parallel sessions over two days. The broad theme of the conference is "Law in a Pluralist Asia: Challenges and Prospects." Asia is arguably the most pluralist region in the world and law has a critical role in accommodating and managing this plurality, which exists at so many levels.

Within the broad conference theme of "Law in a Pluralist Asia: Challenges and Prospects", five of the parallel sessions will focus on selected sub-themes: (1) religion/religious laws (studying aspects of various religious laws, for example, Islamic(Shariah), Jewish, Hindu, Biblical in their historical contexts and application to modern life, as well as examining the place of religion in national legal systems); (2) norms, values and law (exploring competing social, cultural, religious, traditional norms as well as the balancing of minority and majority interests in society); (3) legal pluralism (examining the historical and contemporary phenomenon of the coexistence of different legal systems within various jurisdictions in Asia ); (4) law and economic development (examining different models of economic development in Asia and how law has a role to play in facilitating economic development and international trade taking into account the different stages of social and political development in Asia; (5) regionalization and law (looking at the role of law in developing regional institutions and common standards as well as the harmonization of legal and regulatory regimes. Session (6) will be a general one to include presentations that address the broad theme but may not fit comfortably within the subthemes, or may cut across subthemes, for example, conflict of law or comparative law.

Call for papers

There will be four papers per panel to give presenters and discussants adequate time for fruitful engagement. We encourage participants to focus their papers and address the conference theme and sub-themes. In addition to the general call for individual papers, we would also like to encourage individuals to organise their own panels by coordinating with colleagues, preferably from other ASLI institutions. This will allow for the panels to be more cohesive and will also foster greater collaboration between academics, which is one of the key aims of ASLI.

Selection criteria for papers

Beginning with last year’s conference, the papers accepted for presentation at the ASLI conference were based on a competitive selection process. The experience at last year’s conference showed that the quality of papers had improved considerably and equally importantly, the quality of discussion surrounding the papers was also elevated. For this year’s conference we intend to select 120 papers for presentation at the parallel sessions, 25 posters and 20 Young Scholars’ papers. The selection will be done jointly between the ASLI Secretariat and IIUM. The selection criteria will be as follows:

• Relevance to the broad theme and subtheme
• Quality of the abstract
• Geographical diversity of presenters
• Balance between senior and junior presenters

Submissions of individual papers

Participants should first indicate the relevant parallel session, based on the sub-theme that they wish to be included in and second, indicate the general category of their paper.
Example I

• Name of presenter: Mr XXX
• Title of paper: “Islamic banking and the global financial crisis”
• Subtheme: Religion/Religious laws
• Category: Financial Law
• Abstract: Description of paper in not more than 300 words.

Example II:

• Name of presenter: Ms YYY
• Title of paper: "Fleeing an unhappy marriage: Who has jurisdiction?"
• Subtheme: General
• Category: Conflict of law
• Abstract: Description of paper in not more than 300 words.

The deadline for submission is 8 January 2010, Friday.

Submission for panels

The panel organiser should coordinate with the other speakers and take responsibility for that panel, and ensure that all details are provided with the consent of the other speakers. For example:

• Name of panel coordinator: Ms ZZZ
• Title of panel: Criminal justice in pluralist societies
• Subtheme: Legal pluralism
• Title of paper I: "Examining Aboriginal customary punishment"
• Title of paper II: "Applying khalwat to inter-religious couples"
• Title of paper III: "A cultural defence for recent migrants"
• Title of paper IV: "Shopping for justice in your own land"
• Abstract: Description of panel in not more than 500 words and description of individual papers in not more than 300 words each.

The proposed panel should consist of 4 presenters, including the panel convener.

The deadline for submission is 8 January 2010, Friday.

Participation in the Young Scholars Workshop

The Young Scholars Workshop is open to full time PhD students who have not commenced a career or who have not spent more than three years in a career. It is aimed at postgraduate students and early career academics. Mid-career and senior academics who are working on PhDs are invited to participate in the general conference. There will be twenty papers accepted for the Young Scholars Workshop and non-presenting PhD candidates are welcome to join the workshop to discuss issues relevant to the PhD experience, including strategies for research, writing, publication and commencing an academic career.

Submissions of papers for the Young Scholars Workshop

Participants need not abide by the general theme of the conference. Papers will be selected on the basis of the quality of the abstract.

Example I

• Name of presenter: Mr XXX
• Title of paper: "Equal protection for minorities shareholders: Recent reforms in India"
• Category: Corporate Law
• Abstract: Description of paper in not more than 300 words.

The deadline for submission is 8 January 2010, Friday.

•	Submission of Abstract 8 January 2010 Authors will be notified 15 working days after the deadline on the status of their submission
•	Deadline for Early Bird Registration and Payment 26 February 2010
•	Submission of Completed Paper 26 March 2009
•	Closing date for Registration and Payment 26 March 2009
•	Conference 25 to 26 May 2010, Tuesday & Wednesday

•	The deadline for submission of abstracts for the parallel sessions is 8 January 2010. Please submit abstracts online or via the email to asliconference@nus.edu.sg or via fax to (65) 6779 0979 (Attention: ASLI Secretariat)
•	You can expect to be notified online or via email once your abstract has been received for consideration. If your abstract is accepted, you will be informed by email within two weeks of the deadline. Please maintain a functional email address at all times.
•	Upon acceptance of abstracts, full papers must be submitted by 26 March 2010 for the parallel sessions, young scholars workshop & poster sessions.
•	Please note that there will be 120 slots for individual paper presentation, 25 slots for posters and 20 slots for the Young Scholars Workshop. Selection will be on a competitive basis.
•	The organisers reserve the right to make changes to panel allocations.
IMPORTANT: Early submission is encouraged.

(applicable to presenters whose abstracts have been accepted for the parallel sessions)
•	Author’s Title & Name, University/Organization, Paper Title and Email Address to be stated clearly on the cover page of the paper. Please click here for the template cover page. Download template cover page.
•	Length - No more than 10,000 words, inclusive of footnotes. Please adhere strictly to this requirement.
•	Font - Size 12, Times New Roman
•	Single spacing of text throughout
•	Microsoft Word Document Format
•	Papers to be sent to asliconference@nus.edu.sg by 26 March 2010 at the latest.
We urge that you adhere to the submission deadline so as to facilitate your paper being made available at the conference (see below).

(applicable to presenters whose abstracts have been accepted)

The language of presentation is English. Each speaker will be allocated a maximum of 15 minutes to present their papers at the conference. The presentation venues are equipped with a computer and LCD projector. Speakers who wish to use Microsoft Powerpoint slides to present their papers should save their slides onto a USB drive or CD for this purpose.

(applicable to presenters whose abstracts have been accepted)

The objective of the Young Scholars Workshop is to provide an opportunity for PhD students to present some of their ideas at a research forum for peer discussion. All PhD students are encouraged to attend each of the sessions in the Young Scholars Workshop which will be held in parallel with the other panel presentations at the conference. Each panel will include one or two senior academics who will act as chair and commentator, and will provide feedback and information on matters relating to research, writing, publication and career opportunities. All participants are encouraged to engage in active discussion and share their experiences as well as to offer constructive criticism of the papers presented.

(applicable to presenters whose abstracts have been accepted)

Presenters selected for the Poster Session will be provided a display board space. All posters are required to be mounted at the display boards on the morning of Day One of the conference and the poster will remain on the board for two days. They would have to be removed from 4.00pm on Day Two. Posters should be done in a compact form or spreading over a maximum of six A4 sheets. Text should be brief, in bullet points and clearly readable from a distance of 4 to 5 feet away. Picture and graphics should also be visible from the same distance. The following are key elements that should be included in the posters: Title, name of the author(s), affiliation Brief overview of the research paper Brief literature review (optional) Key facts, analysis and arguments pertaining to the research question Author’s conclusion and points of discussion The poster session will take place between 1.15pm to 2.15pm on Day Two. Presenters are expected to be available at their individual display section to answer questions or engage in informal discussion on their poster content.

(applicable to presenters whose abstracts have been accepted)

Please note that prior to the conference; the organizers will put the papers on a USB thumb drive. A USB thumb drive will be made available to each delegate. Hard copies of individual papers will also be made available to the audience at the venue where each paper is presented. Neither the USB thumb drive nor the hard copies of individual papers will constitute publication; papers will not thereafter be published by the conference organizers nor made available to individuals or libraries. Presenters will retain copyright in their papers and will be free to submit them for publication elsewhere. No papers may be cited without prior permission from the authors.

Selected papers from the subthemes may be considered for publication in special issues of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law and the IIUM Law Journal. Papers will be selected by the editorial teams of the journals and will undergo the usual referreeing process. Neither the conference organizers nor ASLI will be involved in the paper selection process. Participants who wish to have their papers considered for publication will have to provide the final manuscript (not more than 10,000 words total) to the journal editors by 30 June 2010. This will give contributors one month to incorporate feedback on their papers from their presentations at the conference. Please refer to the respective websites for more information Asian Journal of Comparative Law : https://law1a.nus.edu.sg/asli/asli_journal.htm IIUM Law Journal : http://www.iium.edu.my/laws/journal.php