The Asian Law Institute - ASLI
The Asian Law Institute (ASLI) was established in 2003 through the efforts of several leading Asian law schools to foster Asian legal scholarship and to facilitate greater interaction amongst legal scholars in Asia as well as legal scholars outside Asia working on Asian law.
It prides itself as an indigenous Institute of Asian law, created in Asia by Asian law schools and open to the world. The acronym "ASLI", which means "indigenous" or "original" in several Asian languages, reflects the essence of the institution which aims to be a truly home-grown Asian law institute in Asia.
ASLI has sixteen founding member schools that are among the very top law schools in Asia. Their representatives sit on the Board of Governors which meets annually. The National University of Singapore (NUS), which led the initiative, continues to provide administrative and financial support for ASLI, including hosting its Secretariat at the NUS Law School.
Centre for Asian Legal Studies - CALS
The Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) was established in February 2012 to create a significant forum in Asia for the research and discussion of legal issues in Asia from Asian perspectives and with Asian priorities. The Centre aims to move the centre of gravity in Asian legal studies to Singapore.
NUS Law is known as Asia's Global Law School. The scholarly pursuit of the issues that encompass Asian legal studies is one of the core missions of our world-renowned law school. CALS plays an important role in realising that strategic vision.
The vision of CALS is to utilise the strengths of NUS Law to become the world's leading centre for Asian legal studies. Our mission is to transform the way that people think about law in Asia and to positively influence the development of Asian legal systems in the process.