JORINA CHAI
Second Year NUS Law
It was a refreshing insight offered by the Singapore Law Review to suggest having law firms involve more lawyers in pro bono work during the period of economic uncertainty.
The pro bono scene in Singapore has seen more involvement in recent years with lawyers, law firms and students dedicating more time to pursue pro bono work. However, there remain many who require legal aid but are unaware of the avenues of help available to them.
Initiatives such as the Undergraduate Paralegal Support Scheme and Community Legal Clinics administered …

JUSTIN YEO
Senior Editor (SLR)
Two metres was the closest I came. Two metres away sat he, brows furrowed in thought, mental faculties analysing every word of the Attorney-General’s Singapore Law Review lecture on criminal sentencing. When the time came, he rose without pause, accepting Attorney-General Woon’s invitation for questions from the floor. “Here’s the tough one”, the Attorney-General enthused, to the amusement of many but to the astonishment of none. For everybody knew who he was: the man who was, and is, the face of criminal law in Singapore; the man …

AMOS TOH
Year 1 NUS Law
 LAST MONTH, A MAN slapped with three counts of vandalism after he was caught scribbling on a wall outside Parliament House was acquitted of all charges on the ground of unsoundness of mind. A psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) reported that Koh Chan Meng had not been taking his medicine for schizophrenia regularly, triggering a relapse that caused Koh to commit the offences. According to the psychiatrist, Koh was “unable to explain the reason [for] going to Parliament House or to provide a …

RACHEL LEOW
Senior Editor (SLR)
WHEN MEMBER-OF-PARLIAMENT Mr. Seng Hang Thong was set on fire earlier this year, comments relating to the issue were sparked off in Internet chat rooms and forums.
But as soon as “unhelpful comments” were ablaze, Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts Mr. Lui Tuck Yew immediately spoke out against the effectiveness of the self-regulatory regime preferred by the government in policing freedom of speech on the Internet.
Underlying the right to freedom of speech in any given forum is the inherent tension between an …

LYNETTE LIM & EMILY CHOO
Deputy Chief Editor (SLR) & Senior Editor (SLR)
When the entire state apparatus is against the individual offender, the Criminal Procedure Code is the only regulatory safeguard to ensure that rights are adequately protected. But does it do enough to level the playing field?
WITH THE PRESUMPTION of innocence finally being affirmed as part of our criminal justice system in the recent case of XP v. PP, [2008] 4 Sing. L.R. 686 by the High Court of Singapore, it seems logical to follow that the accused should …