JCU Professor appointed to Tokyo chair

A Cairns academic will share his research on the political realities of Australia’s carbon tax with the Japanese when he takes up a position as the University of Tokyo’s Visiting Professor in Australian Studies for 2012-2013.

Associate Professor Justin Dabner, a specialist in international comparative taxation law and a member of JCU’s Law School, is the first Australian legal academic to be appointed to the position, which he will take up in October.

He will devise and teach subjects exploring Australian society and culture at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, engage in research and promote Australian-Japanese cross-cultural exchange.

“I am very excited by the appointment, and it will be a tremendous challenge to teach Japanese students about Australian culture from a legal perspective,” Associate Professor Dabner said.

During his tenure he will be undertaking research on the lessons to be drawn from the

introduction of the carbon tax in Australia.

“The Japanese climate change policy was predicated on nuclear energy and a carbon tax to be introduced in 2011,” he said.

“However, the tsunami, the subsequent nuclear disaster and the associated economic downturn changed all that, and introduction of the carbon tax has been deferred.

“The Japanese Government is likely to be very interested in how the new tax plays out in

Australia.”

Associate Professor Dabner plans to visit Japanese Law Schools to speak on developments in Australian legal education.

“Earlier this decade the Japanese undertook substantial reforms to their legal education model. It seems still to be a work in progress, so developments in Australia are of great interest,” he said.

Associate Professor Dabner is no stranger to Japan, having visited there many times during the last decade, including a secondment to the Tax Policy Institute at Kansai University in Osaka.

The Visiting Professor in Australian Studies at the University of Tokyo is supported by the

Australia-Japan Foundation (AJF), a non-statutory, bilateral foundation in the Department of

Foreign Affairs and Trade, which aims to strengthen Australia-Japan relations.

Issued April 3, 2012

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