About LaPS

The Law & Policy Space or LaPS initiative at the School of Arts and Social Sciences revolves around questions of law, justice, power, and social change, focusing on contemporary issues involving the criminal justice system, constitutionalism and spatial legalities. LaPS creates a space for interdisciplinary approaches, methodological innovations, theoretical advances, and institutional frameworks, including decolonial, critical, and global south perspectives.

LaPS challenges the traditional disciplinary boundaries of what is 'legal', 'political', and 'social' by adopting socio-legal research practices that examine how law operates in practice. This includes evaluating the real-world effects of a regulatory regime, studying implementation gaps, or analyzing how legal institutions shape policy outcomes.

The term ‘law’ is defined broadly to include not just ‘hard law’ in the form of national legislation, rules and regulation, and case law, but to include ‘soft law’ i.e. international law, policies and practices. This is necessary in order to understand the Big Global Challenges aligned to Monash Impact 2030 - in particular local, regional and global issues that have an impact on geopolitical security and vulnerable (and/or thriving) communities.

The current research under this cluster is focused on capital punishment in Asia, drug laws and policies affecting marginalised communities, and constitutional development in Southeast Asia. Emerging research areas and future directions lie in the intersections of law, governance and technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human rights.

There are currently two research projects funded by the British Academy that sit within the LaPS initiative:

Penal Pandemic: A Comparative Study on COVID-19 Pandemic Experiences in Southeast Asian Prisons to Inform Future Pandemic Preparedness (Project ID: 46237)
This project is led by a UK Lead at University of Bristol, Dr Nasrul Ismail with co-PIs from Malaysia (Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu, SASS, Monash University Malaysia), Philippines (Dr Elmer Soriano, Civika Academy/Philippines University), and Thailand (previously under Prof Pitch Pongsawat, Chulalongkorn University, and now completed by Dr Bencharat Chua, Mahidol University). The project started in June 2024 and is expected to end on 31st March 2026. The total amount of funding is GBP 200,000.
Evidence-informed drug policy in South-East Asia (Project ID: 49389)
This project is led by a UK Lead at University of Sheffield, Prof Alex Stevens with co-PIs from Malaysia (Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman and Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu, SASS, Monash University Malaysia), Philippines (Dr Gideon Lasco, Ateneo de Manila University), and Indonesia (Dr Claudia Stoceiscu, Monash University Indonesia). The project began in June 2025 and is expected to end on 30 June 2026. The total amount of funding is GBP 150,000.

An on-going project funded by the Open Society Foundation (OSF), is the contract research/consultation on Roadmap to abolition: Ending capital punishment for drug offences in Malaysia.

Roadmap to abolition: Ending capital punishment for drug offences in Malaysia
LaPS is working with the Anti-death penalty Asia network (ADPAN) and Monash Law (Eleos Justice) to conduct focus-group discussions with six stakeholder groups, in order to produce evidence-based policy briefs, short films, and social campaigns. The dissemination workshop will be held at the Malaysian Parliament in October 2026. The Lead for this project is Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu, and co-PIs are Dr Chrishandra Sebastiampillai and Dr Rizwanah Souket Ali, from SASS, Monash University Malaysia. The lead at ADPAN is Ms Ngeow Chow Ying and Janice Ananthan, and the lead at Eleos Justice, Monash Law is Ms Sara Kowal. This project is funded by OSF for MYR 80,000.

On 11 October 2025, LaPS was instrumental in organising a research-led event called ‘Tried and Prejudice: a film festival’ showcasing local documentaries on the death penalty, drug laws and policies, and the marginalised communities affected by these laws. The event held at RexKL (a heritage cinema), included two panels on the topic of capital punishment and drug policies. The event was funded by SASS, and co-organised with ADPAN, Amnesty International Malaysia, the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights (MCCHR), and Eleos Justice, Monash Law. The speakers came from the legal fraternity, civil society, academia, the families of death row prisoners and former death row prisoners.

Although based at the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS), Monash University Malaysia, LaPS is a collaborative space that involves three different schools (SASS; Monash Law; Department of Public Health, Jeffrey Cheah School of Medicine and Health Sciences) and faculties (Arts, Law, and Medicine).

For further information about LaPS, contact the Lead of LaPS, Dr Thaatchaayini Kananatu (thaatchaayini.kananatu@monash.edu)

Members and External Partners

About LaPS

Members and External Partners