Accolades for Outstanding PhD Thesis

A former Asian Law Centre PhD candidate who is fluent in Indonesian has taken out two top University prizes for his study into the Indonesian Constitutional Court.

Simon Butt, whose thesis on the topic “Judicial Review in Indonesia: Between Civil Law and Accountability? A Study of Constitutional Court Decisions 2003 – 2005” was supervised by Professor Tim Lindsey, has been awarded the inaugural Harold Luntz Prize for the Most Outstanding Law Thesis. He has also won the Chancellor's Prize for Excellence in the PhD Thesis.

Dr Butt joined the Asian Law Centre as a research assistant in 2005. His primary research interests are constitutional, criminal and commercial law in Indonesia, with a focus on judicial processes. While completing his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2007, Dr Butt taught Indonesian Law at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Law, where he has recently been appointed as a lecturer.

With the assistance of a grant provided by the Australian Indonesia Governance Research Partnership (AIGRP), managed by the Crawford School of Economics and Government of the Australian National University, Dr Butt is currently conducting research into Indonesia’s Anti-Corruption Court.

Congratulations!