Harald Baum is Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Japan Department at the Max-Planck-Institute for Foreign Private and Private International Law, Hamburg, Germany; Priv.Doz., University of Hamburg; Research Associate, European Corporate Governance Institute, Brussels, Belgium; Founding and Executive Editor: Zeitschrift für Japanisches Recht / Journal of Japanese Law (ZJapanR, which ANJeL now collaborates in); and Vice-president, German-Japanese Lawyers Association (an ANJeL affiliate). Dr Baum is an expert in comparative commercial law, with numerous publications on business law, corporate governance, takeovers, and capital markets regulation in Germany, the EU, Japan, and the U.S., comparative law, and private international law.

Meryll Dean is Head of the Law Department at Oxford Brookes University, England. She was previously Legal Assistant to the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Communities and held various academic posts at in the School of Legal Studies at Sussex University, England. Professor Dean has published one of the leading textbooks on Japanese law: The Japanese Legal System (London, Cavendish, 2002) and has written in the areas of Japanese public and constitutional law. Her most recent research has been on Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, the role of the Self- Defence Forces and the legality of their participating in international operations. The most recent published work on this is a Chapter "Renouncing Peace in a Time of War – Japan’s Constitutional Conundrum" in Paul Eden and Thérèse O'Donnell (eds), 11 September 2001: A Turning Point in International and Domestic Law? (Ardsley, New York, Transnational Publishers, 2005). In addition to this work, her current research is looking at asylum and immigration law in Japan and will also consider the issue of human trafficking. In December 2004 she gave a guest lecture at Waseda University entitled "Enforcing International Legal Norms: Asylum and Immigration in Japan and the United Kingdom". She visited Sydney around the week of the 23 February conference.

Masako Kamiya, a graduate of Tokyo University, is Professor of Law at Gakushuin University, specialising in Anglo-Commonwealth and American constitutional law. She also teaches Legal Informatics and American Law at the new Law School at Gakushuin University.

Nobuhito Hobo is the Consul-General of Japan. He assumed his post in September 2007. Graduating from Hokkaido University, Mr. Hobo joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in 1975 before joining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) in 1981. He has been appointed to the embassies of Japan in the U.K. (1985-86), Bangladesh (1986-89) and Indonesia (1993-96). Within the Ministry itself he served as Deputy Director, Loan Aid Division, Economic Cooperation Bureau (1989-91), Deputy Director, Press Division, Minister’s Secretariat (1991-93), Director, Multilateral Cooperation Division, Economic Cooperation Bureau (1996-1998), Director, Technical Cooperation Division (1998-99), Director, Aid Policy Division (1998-99), Director, Communications Division, Minister’s Secretariat (2001) and Deputy Assistant Vice-Minister (Parliamentary Affairs) (2001-2003). Mr. Hobo’s previous appointment was Director-General, General Affairs Department, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (2003-2007).

Akira Kawamura is a partner at Anderson Mori & Tomotsune, one of Tokyo's largest law firms, and has an extensive general corporate and litigation practice with numerous large multinational domestic and foreign clients. He specializes in corporate, M&A, intellectual property, international trade, entertainment, publication, energy and real property law. He is a corporate auditor [kansayaku] and board member [torishimariyaku] of a number of Japanese companies, and is also an experienced arbitrator/mediator. He is also an influential member of the Japanese Bar, having served as Executive Vice President of the Dai-ni Tokyo Bar Association, Executive Director of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (Nichibenren) and Chairman of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations' Foreign Lawyers and International Legal Practice Committee. He was a Visiting Professor from 2001-3 at Kyoto University's Faculty of Law, where he graduated with an LLB in 1965. Akira Kawamura also obtained a LL.M from the University of Sydney in 1979, and trained at a law firm in Australia. His publications (as editor-in-chief/author) include Australia Law and Business (1979) and Law and Business in Japan (new ed, 2000).

Michael Ryland is a commercial lawyer at Blake Dawson with 20 years experience as a practising lawyer in both Australia and Japan and also as a government policy adviser. He specialises in cross border investment involving Australia and Japan and practises in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financing, corporate restructuring and international joint ventures. He has worked in Australia, Japan and Indonesia, including eight years as a partner in an Australian based international law firm, and two years as a Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission. Michael is also a Visiting Fellow of the Macquarie University Applied Finance Centre.

Veronica Taylor is Professor of Law and Director of the Asian Law Center, University of Washington. She graduated from Monash University (BA, LLB) and the University of Washington School of Law (LLM), and was an Associate Director of the Asian Law Centre at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Taylor is a specialist in commercial law and society in Asia, contracts and regulation. She also has a strong interest in law and development. Her work on Asian Law includes co-founding the Australian Journal of Asian Law (Sydney: Federation Press), a key journal for scholars and practitioners in the field, and editing Asian Law through Australian Eyes (Sydney: LBC, 1997). Professor Taylor has been a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law a number of times and continues to be an Associate of the Australia-Japan Research Centre, Australian National University.

Malcolm Smith was the dean of comparative Asian law in Australia. Educated at University of Melbourne and Harvard, he went on to establish the Asian Law Centres at both University of British Columbia and University of Melbourne, where he was Foundation Professor of Asian Law. In 2004, he joined Chuo University Law School as Professor of Asian Law. Mal was a founding Advisor to ANJeL and one of its most dedicated supporters. Malcolm Smith passed away unexpectedly in July 2006.