From the Chief Editor
Law reform has become popular in jurisdictions around the world and in Singapore as well. Such reform should arguably be placed under an analytical microscope since the repercussions are wide and varied. Unlike common law decisions in the courts that may be more readily overturned on a daily basis, statutory provisions once set are often not substantially amended till some time later. Bearing this in mind, in this final issue of the semester, Juris explores the mechanisms by which Singapore revises its laws and also comments on …

When the Singapore Court of Appeal passed judgment on Spandeck Engineering v. Defence Science Technology Agency (DSTA), [2007] 1 Sing. L.R. 720 [Spandeck] in August this year, there was little attention given to the low profile case. After all, it was one of the many pure economic loss cases which passed through local courts.
The facts were relatively straight-forward: Spandeck Engineering sued DSTA as the consultants DSTA had employed were negligent and had undervalued the works Spandeck Engineering was to carry out for DSTA, causing Spandeck Engineering to fail to complete …

The B.A. Mallal Moots are an annual tradition in the Faculty of Law, organised by the Mooting and Debating Club. Each year, law students engage in fast and furious verbal battles in the hope of holding the coveted winner’s trophy. The competition is sponsored by Allen & Gledhill LLP. The Best Memorial Competition, which is held concurrently, is sponsored by LexisNexis.
A moot involves an intellectual debate centering on legal issues. Contestants are given a week to write a memorial and present their legal arguments before a court of three judges. …

The junta named it Myanmar, but I still say Burma. Burma, it was, until 1989, barely a year after a protest much like the recent ones ended in a hail of gunfire. Hundreds of thousands of protesters had taken to the streets on the 8th of august 1988, students and monks with upturned begging bowls, demanding democratic rule in Burma. General Ne Win, the leader of the Burmese Government, only said, “when the army shoots, it shoots straight.”
Burma as a nation came into being on 4 January 1948, when it …

It has been relatively easy to ignore the plight of the poverty-stricken and the politically abused in Myanmar when news of their existence can barely get past the strict media controls sanctioned by the isolationist generals that make up its ruling junta. Moreover, the one incident that could have marked a watershed in its political landscape, the 1988 uprising that led to the deaths of at least 3,000 protestors at the hands of the army, was unfortunately sidelined by a region embroiled in its own trials at the time.
The bloodshed …