The Transnational Corporate Lawyers of Dubai, Jakarta and Singapore

When:

March 29, 2016

Time:

12:30 PM - 01:20 PM

Category:

Community event

Location:

Fraser Building, Room 158

Details:

Presented by the UVic Faculty of Law

Corporate lawyers have undergone significant changes to their practice over the past few decades. Globalization has radically altered the nature of commerce and the requirements that business has of their counsel. Traditionally we have sought to understand lawyers as cultural brokers reflective of an interaction between state and society. However, many corporate lawyers in the contemporary globalized environment are adding further levels of transnational engagement. These arrangements mean managing complex socio-political and economic realities on a daily basis that directly impact local communities, flow above national jurisdictions and weave their way within and without international law.

The paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the art of being a lawyer within these new globalized legal, commercial and political arrangements across diverse legal systems and cultures in Dubai, Jakarta and Singapore. These cities all reflect rapidly developing economies, which despite their different political and cultural environments, have often framed themselves with reference to each other. Dubai has consciously looked to Singapore for their developmentalist strategies while Singapore has had to negotiate a complex political relationship with their near, and significantly larger, neighbour Indonesia and in recent years Singapore and Jakarta have sought to build closer ties to the Gulf States. The analysis attempts to understand the intricacies and eclecticism of the craft of transnational corporate lawyering and consider how this emerging mode of activity affects what it means to be a lawyer more generally.

About Dr. Jeremy J. Kingsley

Senior Research Fellow
National University of Singapore

Dr Jeremy Kingsley is a legal scholar and anthropologist. Jeremy received his LLM and PhD degrees in Law from the University of Melbourne and completed his BA and LLB studying at Deakin University. His research focuses primarily upon religious, legal and political authority in Indonesia and how this affects local governance. He is now looking at these notions of authority and the interconnections between Southeast Asia and the Middle East. This research has been published in academic and public affairs journals. Jeremy has completed a two-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (NUS), as well as having lectured at Tembusu College, also at NUS. Jeremy has undertaken extensive field research on the eastern Indonesian island of Lombok as well as more recently in Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Jeremy is currently finalizing a research project: “Islam (Re)Observed – Geertz Caught in the Act of Comparison” at the Middle East Institute (MEI), NUS. In recent months, Jeremy has commenced a major new research project, also at MEI, which is called: “Transnational Corporate Lawyers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East – Administrators of Globalization.” This latest project further develops Jeremy’s interest in the intersection of anthropology and governance, focusing on the connection between jurisprudential knowledge and the acquisition and utilization of socio-political authority.

Contact:

Faculty of Law
www.uvic.ca/law