From 5-12 January 2017, the annual Institute for Global Law and Public Policy (IGLP), an initiative of Harvard Law School, forum converged on Thailand. The forum brings together young scholars and faculty from around the world for an intensive week of discussion and debate.
As part of the week, Melissa Crouch along with Dr Vanja Hamzic (SOAS, London) and Arm Tungnirun (Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok) convened a stream on ‘Law and Society in Southeast Asia’.
The stream content was based on classic works by Professor MB Hooker on Southeast Asian Law texts and David Engel on Legal Consciousness in Thailand, as well as recent research by Vanja on ‘Selfhood and Archipelago’ in Indonesia and the Monogamy Law and the family in Myanmar by Melissa. This provided a basis from which to reflect and engage with critical themes in the study of law and society in Southeast Asia: legal pluralism, law and religion; Buddhism and law, legal consciousness, concepts of selfhood, sexuality and gender.
Melissa Crouch 