【48th Talk】Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qiu Fangzhe: “Early Irish legal history: progress to date and its significance”
Upcoming Event
| Introduction | The 48th session of the “Tan Lark Sye Lecture Series,” organized by the Institute of International Education and the Tan Lark Sye Institute at New Era University College is now open for registration. In this lecture, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qiu Fangzhe from University College Dublin will explore the legal history of early Irish. The fact that Ireland is now a Common Law jurisdiction, like Malaysia, is a result of British colonialism. Yet in contrast to Malaysia which manages to keep certain pre-colonial governmental structure and law (e.g. the sultanates and Shariah Law), none of the pre-Common Law Irish legal tradition (‘Brehon law’) is nowadays recognised by the Irish state as valid source of law. This creates the extraordinary situation that in Irish law schools, the legal history curriculum covers very little about the actual law in Ireland before the 17th century. What was the law in Ireland like before the 17th century? Why has Ireland not formed a hybrid legal system of local customs and foreign ideas like most European countries? What is the significance of studying early Irish law in the present day? |
| Speaker | Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qiu Fangzhe (University College Dublin) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Qiu Fangzhe was awarded his PhD in Early and Medieval Irish in 2014 by University College Cork, and has since worked at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and Maynooth University. He joined University College Dublin in 2020 and teaches modules in Early Irish and Celtic Civilisation. He is currently the principal investigator of the ERC-funded project “Fluid Texts And Scholars’ Digests: (Re)Production of Law in Medieval Ireland” (2023-28). His research interest focusses on medieval Irish law, the early Irish language and historical linguistics. |
| Moderator | Asst. Prof. Dr. Ng Khai Boon (Head of International Academic Exchange Office, NEUC) Dr. Ng Khai Boon received his Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He previously served as a research assistant at the Institute of China Studies and the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre, University of Malaya, and as a teaching assistant and instructor at Nanyang Technological University. He is currently the Head of the International Academic Exchange Office at New Era University College. His research interests include Confucian philosophy, political philosophy, and ethics. |
| Information | Date: 25 March 2026 (Wednesday) Time: 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM Venue: ZOOM (ID & password will be sent to your mobile number and email) Registration Form: https://bit.ly/3seNHqc Registration is free. Please complete your registration by Tuesday, 24 March 2026. |
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