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Associate Professor Joshua Aston

Associate Dean

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 5343
Email: j.aston@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Joondalup  
Room: JO2.316  
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7850-081X

Dr Joshua N Aston is the Associate Dean (Law) and a member of the Executive in the School of Business and Law. He is also the Chair of the Student Appeals Committee.

Biography

Associate Professor Joshua Aston has been the Associate Dean of Law and member of the Executive in the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University since 2020. Prior to joining ECU, he served as the Dean (SW) and Officer on Special Duty to the Director/Vice Chancellor of Gujarat National Law University, India. He has also held the role of Deputy Director at Symbiosis Law School, Symbiosis International University, India. In 2022 he was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at Amity University, India.

Dr Aston's remarkable academic achievements include being awarded the prestigious Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholarship from Germany which led to his invitation as a Research Scholar by the Institute of Air, Space and Cyber Law at the University of Cologne, Germany. He is also recognized as an Asian Law Institute Fellow of the National University of Singapore, Singapore. In addition, he was honoured with the Israeli Government Scholarship, channelled through the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, and was invited as a Research Scholar by the Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University for a duration of eight months.

His educational background in the field of Modern Slavery and Human Rights Law has provides him with a solid foundation, enabling him to delve into specific areas of study by examining the impact of national-level actions on the international stage. Throughout his academic pursuits, he has maintained a steadfast focus on the issue of human rights violations, a subject of great relevance in contemporary civil society. This passion has driven him to extensively research and publish on the pressing matter of Modern Slavery, offering profound insights. His research continually challenges the existing paradigms, and his scholarly writings compellingly advocate for the need to effect positive change in various situations, aiming for a more compassionate and humane world.

Dr Aston's commitment to community service is exemplified by his involvement as Board Member of the Joondalup Business Association. In this capacity, he plays an integral role in fostering the success and sustainability of the local business community in the City of Joondalup, Western Australia.

  • 2023 – JHTM Award for Highly Recommended Paper, Elsevier
  • 2022 – Adjunct Associate Professor, Amity University, India
  • 2017 – Asian Law Institute Fellowship, NUS, Singapore
  • 2017 – Best Faculty Award, Gujarat National Law University, India
  • 2017 – DAAD Scholarship, German Academic Exchange Service, Germany
  • 2013 – Israeli Government Scholarship, Tel Aviv University, Israel
  • Modern Slavery
  • Human Rights Law
  • Humanitarian Law
  • Joondalup Business Association, Board Member
  • Navy League of Australia, Western Australian Division, Member
  • Department of Law, AIMSR, Acropolis Group of Institutions, India, Board of Governors
  • Council of Australian Law Deans, Member
  • Law Associate Dean Research Network, Member
  • Law Access Ltd Stakeholder Advisory Committee, Western Australia, Member
  • Australasian Law Academics Association, Member
  • Law Society, Western Australia, Member
  • Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa, Member
  • All India Law Teachers Congress, Member

Human rights violations

Other Scholarly Publications

  • Aston, J., Tomer, A., Mathew, J. (ed.) (2023). Comparative Approaches in Law and Policy. Singapore, Springer.
  • Tomer, A., Aurora, V. & Aston, J. (2022) Comparative Law: Facets, Nuances and Intricacies, New Delhi, Thomson Reuters.
  • Aston J. (2020), Higher Studies in Law, Lucknow, Eastern Book Company.
  • Aston, J. (2018) Acing Internships. New Delhi, Eastern Book Company.
  • Aston, J. (2017). Contract Law for Managers. Lucknow, Eastern Book Company.
  • Aston, J. (2017). MCQ’s on Law of Contract. Lucknow, Eastern Book Company.
  • Aston, J. (ed.) (2016). Identifying and Comparing the Trends in International Contract Laws and Probing the Critical Issues for Multinational Contracting Parties. New Delhi, Eastern Book Company.
  • Aston, J. (ed.) (2015) International Contracts, Jurisdictional Issues, and the Global Commercial and Investment Governance (A Collection of Essays on Recent Trends). Gandhinagar, Gujarat National Law University.

Other Research Project

Research Project on 'Prevention of Domestic Violence against Migrant Women in Australia: A Review of Policy Responses and Practice. Thomas More Law School, Australian Catholic University, 2022. $500

Research Project on ‘Irregular migration and modern slavery in Australia: legal and policy challenges and responses’ Society and Culture Research Theme – Small Grants Scheme 2021.  $4973.

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Faculty of Law), India, 2014.
  • Master of Laws, England, 2008.
  • Bachelor of Laws, India, 2007.

Research Outputs

Book Chapters

  • Agarwal, P., Aston, J. (2024). The Protection of AI-generated Work: Present Laws and Potential Reforms. Recreating Creativity, Reinventing Inventiveness: AI and Intellectual Property Law (175-189). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003260127-13.
  • Aston, J., Anthony Das, C. (2024). Orphaned by Fate or Design: Navigating the Human Rights Dilemma. Comparative Law: Unraveling Global Legal Systems (101-108). Springer. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-7815-7_7.
  • Barnes, J., Aston, J., Naser, M., Afroz, T. (2024). UDHR and Modern Slavery: Exploring the Vulnerability Approach to Address Migrants’ Slavery-Like Situations. Human Rights after 75 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Reflections from the Global South (473–491). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004517967_024.

Book Chapters

  • Aston, J., Anthony Das, C. (2023). “To censor or not to censor” – Is it a legal or social conundrum?. The Indian Yearbook of Law and Interdisciplinary Studies: Pluralistic Discourse (113-126). Routledge. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/1635.
  • Anthony Das, C., Aston, J. (2023). Tainted Chocolate? A Systemic Review of the Cocoa Industry in Ghana and Brazil. Comparative Approaches in Law and Policy (231-245). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-4460-6_14.

Journal Articles

Journal Articles

  • Aston, J., Wen, J., Goh, E., Maurer, O. (2022). Promoting awareness of sex trafficking in tourism and hospitality. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 16(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCTHR-01-2020-0032.

Books

Book Chapters

  • Prasad, K., Aston, J. (2020). Transformative constitutionalism and basic rights: a comparative analysis of the Indian and Australian constitutions. Comparative Reflections on the Constitutional Models of India and Australia (3.1 -3.3). Bloomsbury. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworkspost2013/8227.

Journal Articles

  • Wen, J., Klarin, A., Goh, E., Aston, J. (2020). A systematic review of the sex trafficking-related literature: Lessons for tourism and hospitality research. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 45(December 2020), 370-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.06.001.
  • Wen, J., Aston, J., Liu, X., Ying, T. (2020). Effects of misleading media coverage on public health crisis: A case of the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak in China. Anatolia: an international journal of tourism and hospitality research, 31(2), 331-336. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2020.1730621.

Journal Articles

  • Yu, C., Wen, J., Goh, E., Aston, J. (2019). “Please help me die”: applying self-determination theory to understand suicide travel. Anatolia: an international journal of tourism and hospitality research, 30(3), 450-453. https://doi.org/10.1080/13032917.2019.1642923.

Book Chapters

  • Aston, J. (2017). Policing in India, Politicization of the Indian Police System and Safeguarding the Human Rights. Terrorism, Its Legal Framework and Beyond (241-262). Manakin Press.

Journal Articles

  • Aston, J. (2017). A Critical Analysis of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings: Success and Failure in Protecting Human Rights of the Victims. International Research Journal of Human resources and Social Sciences, 4(12), 28-41.

Books

  • Aston, J. (2016). Trafficking of Women and Children: Article 7 of the Rome Statute. Oxford University Press.

Book Chapters

  • Aston, J. (2015). Violence against Women and Gender Justice: A Human Rights Perspective. Women Violence and Law: An Intimate Interrogation Open Distance Paradigm (99-115). Netaji Subhas Open University.

Research Projects

  • MARS: Investigating Awareness of and the Affective, Cognitive and Behavioural Responses to Sexual Harassment Legislation Among FIFO Mining Workers, DMIRS: Mental Awareness, Respect and Safety - MARS, Grant, 2024, $40,000.
  • Law & Policy, Cyber Security Research Centre Ltd, Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2019 ‑ 2021, $362,057.

Research Student Supervision

No data available

Associate Supervisor

  • Master of Laws (Research), A Review of the Legal Framework for the Protection of Victims of the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Agriculture in Ghana: A Human Rights Based Approach
  • Master of Laws (Research), Comparing Western Australia and South Australia Public High School's Cyberbullying Policies - Is there a need for a legislative change
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