Why be an academic?

A reminder

Recently, I’ve attended a conference at the University of Tokyo. I never meant to become a comparative law scholar. As with so many other things in my life, I fell into it.

Me outside University of Tokyo clock tower

It all started with the necessity to consider the law of our common law neighbours, New Zealand, Singapore and Hong Kong. Then I became curious and decided to look at the law of Malaysia, discovered that it was ‘codified’ (in a common law kind of a way) and that it had been based on the Indian codification (now the basis of the law in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). I became fascinated by the Indian contractual remedies and how they were similar or different to Australian law. I am always fascinated by the way in which different countries and cultures use certain principles, and how context, culture and time may change the use of a principle.

The conference I attended was the third symposium on Asia-Pacific Trust Law. My paper, with Associate Professor Mark Bennett from Victoria University of Wellington, was on the context and boundaries of the Cook Islands Asset Protection Trust, a structure I only became aware of as a result of my research for my presentation at the first symposium in 2019.

I can tell you why I became part of the Asia-Pacific Trusts law community. It was partly my abiding interest in Trusts law, a subject I’ve taught and researched in since 2007. But there is another reason: Asia-Pacific private law scholars are lovely and generous. It is a pleasure to be part of their community. Everyone’s papers were so interesting, knowledgeable, and detailed, and the questions always ran overtime, because we were all so fascinated with another’s work. I learned a lot, and our paper will be better for the contributions and suggestions of others. I know my work was really improved by my collaboration with Mark: he made our work much richer and more empirical.

I’ve been crushed by the past year or two. I’ve felt academia has been turning bad. It may be that, more generally, it is. I realised over the past two years, however, that private law has been a little oasis, generally immune from the polarisation of the broader academy. I felt refreshed and invigorated after the conference. It represented everything that is good about academia: papers based on careful research and deep knowledge; constructive criticism and encouragement of the work of others; and convivial company. I recalled why I love what I do.

本当に楽しかったです。ありがとうございました。