This book examines how law and regulation respond to digital transformation in South and Southeast Asia, with particular attention to Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and India. Across these jurisdictions, digital transformation is widely promoted as a pathway to economic growth, social inclusion, and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet the same process also produces new regulatory tensions: between innovation and control, market expansion and public accountability, technological adoption and local institutional capacity.
Bringing together country studies and sector-based analyses, the book investigates how legal systems in the region are adapting to the rise of digital platforms, data-driven markets, financial technologies, artificial intelligence, and new forms of online governance. It pays close attention to the gap between law-on-the-books and law-in-practice, showing how formal legal reforms are shaped by local political economies, administrative practices, business interests, and social conditions. Rather than treating digital regulation as a matter of transplanting global best practices, the book asks how regulatory ideas travel, how they are adapted, and where they encounter resistance in specific national contexts.
Edited and written by scholars and practitioners with regional expertise, the volume offers an empirically grounded account of digital transformation and legal change in technology-rich but institutionally diverse Asian societies. It will be of interest to researchers, students, legal professionals, policymakers, investors, development agencies, and international partners seeking to understand the regulatory landscape, economic potential, and governance challenges of digital transformation in South and Southeast Asia.

Toan Le is a Lecturer in Law at The Business School, RMIT University, Vietnam. He is also a member of the Scientific Committee at the College of Economics, Law and Government at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. He earned his PhD from Monash University, his LL.M from The University of Melbourne, and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and a Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University, Australia. He is an Australian lawyer and a Certified Practising Accountant (CPA). His research takes a socio-legal approach to law and technology, financial and taxation regulation and workplace and property rights issues, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. His refereed journal work has appeared in prestigious international academic journals, including the Sydney Law Review, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Journal of World Trade, New Zealand Journal of Tax Law and Policy, the e-Journal of Tax Research and many other publications. In addition, he is the author of two academic research books. 

Tu Thien Huynh is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City (UEH) and is currently based at Monash Business School. He is also affiliated with the Asia-Pacific Regulation Research Group at Monash University and the Institute for Policy Studies and Media Development in Hanoi. His research interests include Asian comparative law, regulatory theory, and socio-legal theory. His current work takes a socio-legal approach to digital transformation in Asia, focusing on privacy, data protection, data governance, and market regulation. His work has been published in the Asian Journal of Law and Society and leading Vietnamese law journals.

Thiem Hai Bui is a researcher at Stockholm Centre for Global Asia, Stockholm University and Department of Global Political Studies, Malmö University. He is a member of the Committee on Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, and Law at the Vietnam National Foundation for Science and Technology Development (NAFOSTED) and Deputy Director of Institute of Legal Studies and Legal Aid in Hanoi. He earned his PhD from the University of Queensland, Australia and an MA International Studies from SOAS, University of London, UK. His research has been published on Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Asian Studies Review, Asian Survey, Southeast Asian Affairs, Asian Journal of Social Science, Contemporary Southeast Asia, and Global Change, Peace and Security.