教授 / Professor LAWSON, CarolLAWSON, Carol
Courses in AY 2025
- 5111210 Introduction to Japanese Law
Education & Employment
2024
Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics
2021
Associate Professor, Graduate Schools for Law and Politics
Research Fields
Japanese and Anglo-American law
I primarily work on comparative criminal justice regulation. My approach is through a sociolegal lens, and I use mixed methods to carry out empirical research. I am currently working on projects related to the growing challenges facing Japan's Volunteer Probation Officer service, particularly in the digital age. I am also contributing to a joint UTokyo-ANU study on judicial diversity in Japan and Korea. Recent projects include a co-authored article on the protection of domestic violence (DV) victims under Japanese and Australian law, research reports on the Disclosure and Barring Systems (DBS) established in Australia and New Zealand to vet people who work or volunteer with children, and a large-scale study of the nature and impact of civil prison oversight in Japan and Australia.
Two perennial insights are firstly, the importance of Japan's role as a testing site for western legal ideas that are regarded or promoted as being universally applicable, and secondly, the importance of developing a granular understanding of a regulatory system, especially of the needs and perspectives of the people who animate it, before attempting a regulatory intervention.
I teach courses in Japanese law and Anglo-American law and coach in the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition at the Tokyo and Global levels. I also serve on the Ministry of Justice Japanese Law Translation Council and as an expert adviser to the Japanese legal translation community, including on plain legal language.
I primarily work on comparative criminal justice regulation. My approach is through a sociolegal lens, and I use mixed methods to carry out empirical research. I am currently working on projects related to the growing challenges facing Japan's Volunteer Probation Officer service, particularly in the digital age. I am also contributing to a joint UTokyo-ANU study on judicial diversity in Japan and Korea. Recent projects include a co-authored article on the protection of domestic violence (DV) victims under Japanese and Australian law, research reports on the Disclosure and Barring Systems (DBS) established in Australia and New Zealand to vet people who work or volunteer with children, and a large-scale study of the nature and impact of civil prison oversight in Japan and Australia.
Two perennial insights are firstly, the importance of Japan's role as a testing site for western legal ideas that are regarded or promoted as being universally applicable, and secondly, the importance of developing a granular understanding of a regulatory system, especially of the needs and perspectives of the people who animate it, before attempting a regulatory intervention.
I teach courses in Japanese law and Anglo-American law and coach in the Intercollegiate Negotiation Competition at the Tokyo and Global levels. I also serve on the Ministry of Justice Japanese Law Translation Council and as an expert adviser to the Japanese legal translation community, including on plain legal language.
Major Publications
My publications and grants are listed at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0819-9646.