Keynote Speakers:
Stefan Gruber is a Distinguished Professor and Luojoa Chair at Wuhan University. He is based at the School of Law where he also serves as Associate Dean, championing internationalisation, cross-institutional agreements, and international collaboration for Wuhan University and the School of Law. Prior, he was a full-time faculty member at Kyoto University and the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney. He was also visiting professor and taught inter alia at the University of Hong Kong, Goethe University Frankfurt, Duke University, Seoul National University, and Renmin Law School of China. He is further active as a legal practitioner, international arbitrator, and consultant, and is a member of the World Commission on Environmental Law. He was educated inter alia at the University of Sydney, Goethe University Frankfurt, and at Harvard Law School, and holds degrees in law, philosophy, and political science.
Professor Gruber’s current research concentrates on sustainable development law and policy; the protection of cultural heritage; environmental law; public and private international law; alternative dispute resolution; international relations and diplomacy; international and regional security, armed conflicts, and conflict resolution; and human rights. Another major focus is on illicit trafficking, organised crime, and illegal trade in the Asia Pacific, any forms of art crime, their prevention and prosecution, and the restitution of illegally exported objects.
Speakers:
Mr. Masood Karimipour has been a trial attorney, criminal justice policy advisor, and rule of law development manager for 36 years. He recently completed service as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok.
Mr. Karimipour also served as Special Advisor on Strategic Coordination in UNODC headquarters in Vienna. Prior to that, he served as the UNODC Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa, based in Cairo. He also served as the UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia, based in Tashkent. Previously, he served as the Senior Judicial Affairs Officer in the UN peacekeeping Mission in Sudan (UNMIS), based in Khartoum. Prior to that, he served as the Chief of Team for the Afghanistan Justice Sector Support Programme, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, based in Kabul. He has also served as a Public Defender in the Western Pacific region and in New York City. Mr. Karimipour holds a Juris Doctorate in Law.
Justin Hastings is Professor in International Relations and Comparative Politics in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, where he is also affiliated with the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, the China Studies Centre, the Sydney Cyber Security Network, and the Centre of International Security Studies. From 2008 to 2010, he was an Assistant Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he remains affiliated with the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy. He received an MA (2003) and PhD (2008) in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and an AB in public and international affairs from Princeton University in 2001.
Hastings’ research is mostly focused on gray and black markets, rogue states, and the structure and behaviour of clandestine non-state actors, such as terrorists, maritime piracy, smugglers, organized criminals, insurgents, and nuclear weapons proliferators, primarily in Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean. In the department, he teaches units and supervises research students on international security issues and Asian politics.
Professor Simon Bronitt served as the Dean and Head of Sydney Law School between 2019 and 2024. Prior to his appointment in 2019, he held a Chair in the TC Beirne School of Law at the University of Queensland commencing June 2014. Previously he served as the Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Policing and Security, hosted by Griffith University (2009-2014). Before moving to Queensland in 2009 to take up this position, Simon was a member of the Australian National University College of Law (1991-2009). During that time, he served as Sub Dean in 1997-98, and was promoted to Professor in 2005. During his time at ANU, he held a number of research leadership roles, including Director of the National Europe Centre an EU funded Centre – in the Research School of Humanities (2003-2008) and Director of the Australian Centre for Military Law and Justice, ANU (2009). Drawing on comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives, he has published widely on criminal justice topics ranging across terrorism law and human rights, comparative criminal law, covert policing, family violence, and mental health policing.
Sheldon Zhang has been active in research on transnational human smuggling and trafficking activities for more than two decades. He has extensive expertise in measurement and survey instrument development. He has also gained much national and international prominence in applying innovative sampling strategies to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking violations in various labor sectors both home and abroad. His projects have been funded by government agencies and private foundations in the U.S. and abroad. He has written and lectured extensively on issues related to trafficking and smuggling activities in journals such as Criminology, British Journal of Criminology, and Crime, Law and Social Change. He has been twice invited to the White House to participate in national gatherings of policy-makers/advocacy groups/researchers on combatting human trafficking, and led in planning and participation in a forum by the National Academy of Sciences on latest methodologies for estimating the prevalence of modern slavery. He has authored/co-authored 14 books and edited volumes, and more than 120 scholarly journal articles, book chapters and technical reports.
Ling Han is a Lecturer at Guangzhou University, specializing in Public International Law and International Human Rights Law. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Padova, Italy, where she also completed postdoctoral research. Dr. Han has previously worked with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva and serves as an Executive Editor of the International Journal of Human Rights. Her research focuses on international organizations, human trafficking, and the rights of women, children, and persons with disabilities. Dr. Han’s latest research monograph, Child Trafficking in China: A Human Rights-Based Perspective, provides an in-depth analysis of the causes, criminal patterns, and consequences of child trafficking in China.
Dr. Xiong Qi holds a PhD degree of law from University Freiberg, Germany. He is Associate Professor of School of Law, Wuhan University, Guest Researcher of Comparative Law Institute, Waseda University, Japan, Guest Researcher of Center of Consumer Protection, Wuhan University, Council Member of Criminology Research Society of Chinese Law Society. He has won Price for Excellent Paper in Chinese Law Society and Hubei Province Law Society for several times, and has taken charge of several research projects of national level or provincial level.
Toby has a BA (Hons) in ‘Fine Arts Valuation’ and a MSc in ‘Risk, Crisis & Disaster Management’ & is an art authenticator, having studied at the Centre for Cultural Material Conservation, graduating from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has extensive knowledge in forensic art authentication methods & the more theoretical & academic studies surrounding art fraud. His main interests include the topic of fakes & forgeries of Chinese ceramics & the problems of smuggled illicit antiquities emanating out of China. Toby has received specialist training in the prevention of illicit trafficking & cultural heritage protection, as well as in provenance research & recovery of looted assets. He has subsequently seen his work on this subject published in “Art & Crime: Exploring the Dark Side of the Art Market” (Praeger, 2009), “Cultural Property Crime” (Brill, 2014), “Art Crime: Terrorists, Tomb Raiders, Forgers and Thieves” (Palgrave, 2016) and in “Art Crime and its Prevention”(Lund Humphries, 2016). He has also written for the Journal of Art Crime. Since 1993, he has worked for the Hong Kong Police Force. Toby is an advisor & teaching Professor to the ‘Association for the Research into Crimes Against Art’ (ARCA) for their postgrad programme on “Art Crime & Cultural Heritage Protection” held in Italy. He has lectured extensively to the art trade & beyond on topics surrounding art crime to the likes of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Christie’s Education, The World Congress of Forensics, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) & at Asia Art in London. In November 2014, he was invited to Chair the Forensic DNA panel at the World Gene Convention held in Hainan, China, where he presented a paper on synthetic DNA security coding & its application to the art & fine wine markets in helping to combat fakes. Toby is a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Arts Scholars & holds the Freedom of the City of London. In 2006, he was awarded a Scholarship from Henley Business School.
In August 2025, Toby began studying for PhD at CUHK LAW.
Dr Hai Thanh Luong is a Lecturer at Griffith University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and an expert on the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime (GITOC). Dr Luong holds an LLB in Criminal Investigation from Vietnam, a Master’s in Transnational Crime Prevention from the University of Wollongong, and a PhD in Criminology from RMIT University. His research focuses on transnational crimes in Southeast Asia, cybercrime, policing, drug trafficking, and human trafficking. Since 2005, he has contributed to law enforcement collaboration through ARLEMP, supported by the Australian Federal Police, facilitating connections among agencies, policymakers, and academics across Asia to combat transnational crime. He has worked with police, customs, border guards, and maritime agencies in research, discussions, and initiatives, notably via the Australia-Mekong Partnership and the U.S.-Mekong Dialogue. Luong authored two books: “Transnational Drug Trafficking across the Vietnam and Laos Border’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and “Herding Cats” (2022), the latter based on a Vietnamese cannabis biography (translation). He was awarded the Asian Young Criminologist Award in 2020.
Ms. Siji Song is a PhD candidate in Public International Law at the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (France). Her doctoral research focuses on the integration of human rights obligations into maritime law-enforcement frameworks, from maritime surveillance to post-interdiction, with particular attention to the use of modern surveillance technologies and the emerging cooperative mechanisms, such as shiprider or handover agreements, that shape contemporary maritime law enforcement practice.
In parallel with her academic work, Ms. Song serves as Head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Programme Office in Sri Lanka (POLKA) and Regional Programme Coordinator for the Eastern Indian Ocean region under UNODC’s Global Maritime Crime Programme (GMCP). She brings over a decade of experience with the United Nations, addressing criminal justice responses to transnational organised crime and illicit trafficking across Asia and Africa.
Ms. Song holds Master’s degrees in Public International Law from the Sorbonne Law School, in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from Université Panthéon-Assas, as well as in the Law of the Sea and Maritime Security from Nantes Université.