Melissa Crouch

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  • Professor and Associate Dean Research, Faculty of Law & Justice; Vice-President, Asian Studies Association of Australia, UNSW

Melissa Crouch is Professor and Associate Dean Research at the Law School, UNSW. She established and runs the Southeast Asia Law & Policy Forum at UNSW Law. Her research contributes to the field of comparative constitutional law; law and society; and law and religion.

She has been awarded numerous grants and awards, including the Endeavour Australia Research Fellowship; University of Indonesia Visiting Fellowship; and the University of Melbourne Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellowship. Melissa is Chief Investigator on an ARC Discovery Grant on "Constitutional Change in Authoritarian Regimes" (2018-2021). This study builds on two of her previous major research projects on constitutionalism: her doctoral research on constitutionalism, courts and religion in Indonesia, and her postdoctoral research on constitutionalism and the courts in Myanmar and Southeast Asia more broadly.

Melissa is the author of The Constitution of Myanmar (2019) (shortlisted for the Australian Legal Research Awards inaugural book award; see podcast by the New Books Network here) and Law and Religion in Indonesia: Conflict and the Courts in West Java (2014). She has published in a range of peer-reviewed journals including the Law & Society Review, International Journal of Constitutional Law and the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. She is the editor of several volumes including: Women and the Judiciary in the Asia-Pacific (forthcoming CUP 2021); The Politics of Courts: Judicial Reform and Legal Culture in Indonesia (CUP 2019); 'Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim-Buddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging' (OUP 2016), and The Business of Transition: Law, Development and Economics in Myanmar (CUP 2017). Melissa has worked with local and international organisations with a focus on constitutional and administrative law reforms and legal education in Southeast Asia.

Melissa is the Vice-President of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA), the peak academic body for Asian studies in Australia (2021-2022).

Experience

  • 2014–present
    Lecturer, Law Faculty, University of New South Wales
  • 2019–present
    Associate professor, Law Faculty, University of New South Wales
  • 2021–present
    Professor, Faculty of Law & Justice, University of New South Wales
  • 2013–2014
    Research Fellow, Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of Singapore
  • 2012–2013
    Postdoctoral Fellow, Law Faculty, National University of Singapore
  • 2011–2012
    Research Fellow, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne

Education

  • 2012 
    University of Melbourne, PhD, Law
  • 2007 
    University of Melbourne, BA/LLB

Publications

  • 2019
    The Constitution of Myanmar: A Contextual Analysis, Hart
  • 2019
    The Politics of Court Reform: Judicial Change and Legal Culture in Indonesia, Cambridge University Press
  • 2017
    The Business of Transition: Law Reform, Development and Economics in Myanmar, Cambridge University Press
  • 2014
    Law and Religion in Indonesia: Conflict and the Courts in West Java, Routledge
  • 2014
    Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Hart Publishing
  • 2013
    Trials of People Smugglers in Indonesia: 2007-2012, Policy Paper, University of Melbourne
  • 2012
    Law and Religion in Indonesia: The Constitutional Court and the Blasphemy Law, Asian Journal of Comparative Law
  • 2009
    Indonesia, Militant Islam and Ahmadiyah: Origins and Implications, Policy Paper, University of Melbourne

Grants and Contracts

  • 2019
    ARC Discovery Grant
    Role:
    Chief Investigator
    Funding Source:
    Australian Research Council
  • 2014
    Authority, Islam and Fatwa in Myanmar
    Role:
    Primary researcher
    Funding Source:
    Institute for Global Law and Policy (IGLP), Harvard Law School
  • 2013
    Law, Minorities and Governance in Myanmar
    Role:
    Primary researcher
    Funding Source:
    Centre for Asian Legal Studies
  • 2012
    Myanmar Engagement Fund
    Role:
    Co-researcher
    Funding Source:
    University of Melbourne
  • 2009
    Endeavour Research Scholarship
    Role:
    PhD
    Funding Source:
    Australia Awards

Professional Memberships

  • Asian Studies Association of Australia, Secretary
  • Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars, Secretary

Research Areas

  • Comparative Law (180106)
  • Law And Society (180119)
  • Constitutional Law (180108)
  • Government And Politics Of Asia And The Pacific (160606)

Contact Melissa for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision