The Singapore Law Review

07/10/2021

The Singapore Law Review is pleased to share that NUS Law clinched the “Best Presentation Award” in the International Youth Legal Exchange Conference (IYELC) organised by the International Youth Legal Exchange Federation and the Department of Justice of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. ⁣
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The virtual competition took place on Saturday, 11 September 2021, which saw delegations from 11 jurisdictions. Delegates were expected to write an essay exploring access to justice in their respective jurisdiction and to present their findings. ⁣
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The NUS Law team was made up of: ⁣
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Zephan Hwang ’24⁣
Glenda Tan ’24⁣
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Congratulations Zephan and Glenda!⁣
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The SLR is also pleased to share that the team entered this competition under the auspices of the SLR.

Read more about the conference here: https://nus.edu/3oHqZUd

07/10/2021

Since the Court of Appeal's pronouncement on accomplice liability in Daniel Vijay, doubts have arisen over the exact mens rea required of the secondary offender for a section 300(c) murder conviction. Several courts have suggested that he must have intended or known that the injuries inflicted by the primary offender were sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.
This article disagrees with that approach, for it unjustifiably confers a more favourable test on the secondary offender. Instead, Professor Alan Tan argues that a “co-terminous” approach should be adopted that subjects all assailants to a consistent section 300(c) test.

A PDF version of this article is available he re .

01/10/2021

The Singapore Law Review is collaborating with the Intellectual Property Students' Association (IPSA) to publish interviews with key players of Singapore’s intellectual property scene on Juris Illuminae. The interviews are conducted and transcribed by IPSA members before they are vetted by the Review’s editors.

At present, the SLR has published three interviews on Juris Illuminae. Most recently, IPSA members interviewed Dr. Stanley Lai, SC who is the partner and the head of the Intellectual Property Practice and Co-Head of the Cybersecurity and Data Protection Practice at Allen & Gledhill.

The Singapore IP Strategy 2030 report highlighted that Singapore is looking to build a robust IP ecosystem, which includes strengthening its position as an IP dispute resolution hub. Based on this backdrop, in this interview, Dr. Stanley Lai shared his interesting and insightful perspectives on the IP dispute resolution scene in Singapore.

Click here to learn more about the interview with Dr. Stanley Lai: https://www.singaporelawreview.com/juris-illuminae-entries/2021/in-conversation-with-dr-stanley-lai

30/11/2020

The Singapore Law Review is accepting submissions for its 38th Volume, which will be published in 2021.

The submission deadline has been extended to 31 December 2020 and may be sent to: [email protected]

For more information on publishing guidelines, we invite you to visit: www.singaporelawreview.com/submissions

24/11/2020

Each year, the Singapore Law Review (SLR) organises the SLR Annual Lecture, featuring legal luminaries on topics of their specialisation or interest. This year, the Lecture was held on 29th October. The Guest Speaker for the Event was Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, Dean of Oxford Law Faculty. She lectured on the topic of good faith in the common law of contract.

Sypnosis of Lecture:
Contrary to orthodoxy, good faith is no stranger to common law. Properly understood, we have been “speaking prose all our lives without knowing it”. The debate over whether to introduce a doctrine of good faith is therefore misconceived—the horse has bolted; the stable door has opened. Rather, the salient questions are: (i) How can a good faith requirement be justified? (ii) What role should it play in the evolution of contract law? (iii) What does it require? and (iv) How can we start to taxonomize its demands?
Good faith is a threefold attitude of honesty, fair dealing and fidelity to the contractual purpose that is constitutive of the activity of contracting. This is manifest in many contract law rules that apply with different intensity and effect to four identifiable categories of contracts. This is good faith “3 by 4”. Open recognition of this humble version of good faith will: make explicit the implicit ethical content of the common law of contract, enhance our understanding and organization of many apparently disparate rules, legitimize these rules and facilitate legal development in a manner consistent with common law incrementalism. This leaves open the policy questions of how far and how fast common law should travel along the road of good faith.

You may view the recording of the Lecture here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5olUjo9hun4&feature=emb_title

29/10/2020

The Singapore Law Review is thrilled to have Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart deliver the 𝟑𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐋𝐑 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 - 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 '𝟑 𝐛𝐲 𝟒' on Zoom later tonight from 7.30pm-9.00pm.

Professor Chen-Wishart is the Dean of the Oxford Law Faculty. She will be sharing on the role of good faith in the common law and its effect on contracts.

Registered attendees would have received an email containing the relevant details for the webinar. Should there be any issues, please do not hesitate to contact [email protected].

12/10/2020

The advent of artificial intelligence technology has allowed for contracts to be formed by pre-programmed algorithms, diminishing the “human element” from contracts. This challenges traditional contract law principles and presents unprecedented contractual issues. In his article, Journe Fu examines how the Singapore Court of Appeal adapts conventional doctrine to tackle these challenges in the landmark decision of Quione Pte Ltd v B2C2 Ltd [2020] SGCA(I) 2, and evaluates the commercial implications of their approach.

The PDF version of this article can be found here .

09/10/2020

The Singapore Law Review will be extending the sign-up date for the 𝟑𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐋𝐑 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 – “𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 ‘𝟑 𝐛𝐲 𝟒’” to 𝟏𝟐 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 (𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲). Our speaker, Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, will be sharing on the role of good faith in the common law and its effect on contracts. Professor Chen-Wishart is the Dean Elect of the Oxford Law Faculty, a Professor at NUS Law and the author of Contract Law (6th ed). A full synopsis of the Lecture may be found here: https://tinyurl.com/slrlecture2020

This lecture has been accredited by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (SILE) and attendance is worth 𝟏 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐏𝐃 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭.

The details of the Lecture are as follows:
Date: 𝟐𝟗 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎 (𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲)
Time: 7.30 - 9.00 pm
Venue: Zoom

Interested participants can register at https://slr2020.eventbrite.sg by 12 October 2020.

Thank you and we hope to see you there!

03/10/2020

In this companion article to a forthcoming empirical legal study, author Darren Ang critically examines the use of content analysis — a quantitative, “scientific” methodology from the area of communications research — in legal scholarship. Following a survey of the strengths and limitations of these methodologies, the author advocates for the use of combined quantitative-qualitative methods in empirical legal studies based on published case reports.

A PDF version of the article can be found here .

27/09/2020

The Singapore Law Review invites you to attend the 𝟑𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐋𝐑 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 – “𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡 ‘𝟑 𝐛𝐲 𝟒’”. Our speaker, Professor Mindy Chen-Wishart, will be sharing on the role of good faith in the common law and its effect on contracts. Professor Chen-Wishart is the Dean Elect of the Oxford Law Faculty, a Professor at NUS Law and the author of Contract Law (6th ed). A full synopsis of the Lecture may be found here: https://tinyurl.com/slrlecture2020

This lecture has been accredited by the Singapore Institute of Legal Education (SILE) and attendance is worth 𝟏 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐏𝐃 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭.

The details of the Lecture are as follows:

Date: 𝟐𝟗 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟎 (𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲)
Time: 7.30 - 9.00 pm
Venue: Zoom

Interested participants can register at https://slr2020.eventbrite.sg by 9 October 2020.

Thank you and we hope to see you there!

13/09/2020

Although it is trite law that a purposive interpretation is to be applied when courts engage in the process of interpreting the provisions of the Constitution of Singapore, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the specific means and methods by which the purposive approach is to be achieved, particularly when rules and canons of statutory interpretation for ordinary laws are imported into the realm of constitutional interpretation.

Continuing from his earlier piece, "Leaving an Empty Seat: Wong Souk Yee’s answer to By-Elections in a Group Representation Constituency", Benjamin Low analyses the Court of Appeal's decision in Wong Souk Yee v Attorney-General [2019] 1 SLR 1223 and the implications of the Court's judgment for constitutional interpretation and the constitutional validity of the GRC by-elections scheme.

A PDF version of the article can be found here .

30/08/2020

In this article, Toh Ding Jun discusses the ambit of the doctrine of unconscionability and how the Singapore position might actually be as broad as the Australian one. In his conclusion, he argues that the difference between both countries’ positions might be more apparent than real, and that the Singapore courts should not artificially apply the doctrine of unconscionability so as to retain the ‘middle ground’.

A PDF version of the article can be found here.