Research
Intimacies at Distance
This project, by studying how those in polyamorous relationships engages with law, asks how law impacts individual freedom in intimate relationships. Regulation of intimate relationship is tasked with trade-offs between, on the one hand, the protection function of the state and its necessary intervention and, on the other hand, people’s privacy, equality, and freedom in their sexual and romantic relationships. This study, by focusing on people who exercise their agency to engage in so-called ‘deviant’ intimacy (i.e., sexual and romantic relationships that are not allowed in law), will generate insights that help us reflect on how law informs our consciousness, behaviour, and normativity.
This project involves the making of a short documentary film that delves into the emotive experiences of polyamorous couples, especially how they navigate, interact with, and sometimes circumvent or disengage from the state’s legal system and other normative structures that impact their lives. I am undertaking this project under the guidance of filmmaker Andy Lawrence.
Age of consent
In my post-doctoral project, I study the concept of agency in law, by examining the background and practice of ‘age of consent’ laws in three countries: Japan, Indonesia, and the Netherlands. I go to courtrooms, talk to people and reflect on the line that laws draw between sex based on consent and without consent (sexual violence), between act of love and crime, between right and wrong. With Clarisse Anceau (Science Po), I am researching and writing about the French age of consent law debates in the 1970s and in 2018/2021 legal reform. With Prof. Adriaan Bedner I am conducting a comparative socio-legal analysis on legal cases regarding age of consent laws.
Laws against Sexual Violence
With Dr. Annelien Bouland (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), I am researching and writing about the recent rape law reform in the Netherlands. We analyze the parliamentary debates and other documents to identify how consent is understood and given juridical shape in the making of new law as well as what justification lawmakers provide.
With Dr. Annelien Bouland (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid) and Dr. Mischa Dekker (KU Leuven), I am researching the role of experts and scientific knowledge in the making of laws against sexual violence (i.e., rape law and street harassment law). We are organizing an international workshop in Madrid, where we, together with other scholars from Europe, explore the recent trend in legal reforms on sexual violence law. See call for papers here.
Human Rights and Contested Agency
With Dr. Edward van Daarlen (McGill University) and Prof. Agnes Tam (University of Calgary), we are organizing a series of workshops and publications to address the concept of agency in human rights and beyond. The concept of agency guides our social and legal practices, including human rights instruments, laws on consent, voting rights and standing to sue. However, the conception of agency that is often used, at least in the west, is highly individualistic and hyper-rational. This has two potential problems. First, it can be unrealistic, failing to account for who we are as collective agents. Many of us do not act alone and our decisions are heavily shaped by narratives, relations, commitments, norms, and institutions. Second, it can be exclusionary. Many who fail to live up to this ideal (e.g., children, future generations, indigenous communities, and animals) are excluded from legal protection. This project seeks to bring together perspectives and expertise from philosophy, anthropology and law to articulate the conceptions of agency used in social practices, identify their limits, and reconceptualize alternatives that are both more inclusionary and useful in understanding how collective action is possible.
Intimate Legal Interaction (ILI) research group
With Judith van Uden (Leiden University), I am organizing a research group with scholars who share interests in laws that regulate intimate relationships (e.g., marriage, divorce, having children, birth, death, sex). Visit our webpage here for details and upcoming events.
Compliance, Accountability, and Enforcement of COVID mitigation measures in Asia
With Prof. Hiroshi Fukurai (University of California, Santa Cruz) and Prof. Kota Fukui (Osaka University, Japan), we are planning a comparative research project to study the impact of COVID mitigation measures across various Asian countries. We prepared a panel at ALSA (Asian Law and Society Conference) 2021 on 17-18 September 2021, held virtually.
Facilitation
The idea of facilitation is to maximize authentic participation in decision-making process in communities. It makes it easy for groups to think, plan, and make decisions together, and allows to ensure that every person has an opportunity to hear others and express their ideas, leading to a richer and wiser result. I am completing a series of training programs with ICA Associates and practicing to become a professional facilitator, while using the facilitation philosophies and methods in teaching, meetings, events, and conversations to maximize the outcome.
Teaching
Law and Society in Japan (Leiden Law School).
Law and Governance in Asia (Leiden Law School).
Law, Gender, Race, and Intersectionality (Leiden Law School).
Law and Culture (Leiden Law School and Leiden University College)
Supervision
Nanda Amalia (2020-present, thesis: Access to Justice in Aceh: A Socio-legal Study of Family Legal Disputes and The Limits of Redress. PhD candidate at VanVollenhoven Institute).
Chalalai Taesilapasathit (2022-present, thesis: Child Marriage in Thailand: Theorizing the perpetuation of its existence. PhD candidate at Mahidol University, The Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies).
Katherine Watson (2024-present, thesis: the utility and application of the ‘evolving capacities’ principle in the context of adolescent sexuality. PhD candidate at VanVollenhoven Institute and Child Law, Leiden Law School).
Neha Gauhar (2024-present, thesis: The role of the informal justice system in perpetuating and legitimising violence against women and the girl child in Pakistan)
Priscilla Yovia (2024-present, thesis: The pertinency of age of consent in the case of sexual violence between adolescents)
Hoko Horii 