The Singapore Law Review

If you missed our Recruitment tea earlier today, you did not really miss anything (except the food part). You can still apply to become a member by submitting your application by 22 August 2007 (Wednesday), 5 pm. Read here for more details. (more…)

The Singapore Law Review (SLR) Writing Competition & Symposium returned in AY 2006/2007 after a brief hiatus. The theme of the Competition was “Legal Developments in a Changing World”. We decided on this broad theme because we wanted to give students the greatest flexibility to write on any topic they wanted, in order to encourage as many students as possible to submit their essays. Well, it worked! We received entries from Law undergraduate, graduate and exchange students. There were so many entries that we had a hard time selecting the finalists. After much debate, we finally selected our six finalists, who had to present and defend their essays in front of a panel of judges and audience. The six essays discussed very current and interesting topics, including preventive detention, Islamic law and human rights issues.

The presentations were held in mid-February just before the Lunar New Year. This meant that all finalists were assured of a nice ‘ang pow’ even before the New Year festivities began! The judges for the presentation were Mr Oon and Mr Bazul, partners from sponsoring firm T S Oon & Bazul. Professor Michael Hor and constitutional law expert Dr. Kevin Tan, both SLR Advisors, completed the panel.

Each finalist gave a 10-minute presentation, following which the judges and audience grilled them, oftentimes rather mercilessly it seemed, on their essays. This “intellectual thrust and parry” not only gave the finalists the opportunity to dazzle all present with their scintillating arguments, it also provided a highly exciting and entertaining show for the audience!

Everyone then enjoyed a sumptuous buffet dinner beside the Upper Quadrangle, which looked particularly beautiful that night. Good food, great company, a stunning, moonlit campus – what a wonderful way to end the SLR Writing Competition & Symposium!

After over 2 hours of stimulating presentations and intense debates, Ms Eunice Chua (LLB ’07) emerged the champion. Her essay, titled An Analysis of How The Singapore, United Kingdom and American Judiciary Give Voice To The Law In The Face Of (Counter) Terrorism won her the top prize of $1000. Mr Emmanuel Cai (LLB ’08) clinched the 1st runner-up prize of $500 with his essay on the subject of knowing receipt – Knowing, Dishonest or plain Unjust? A Commentary on the Past Present and Future of Knowing Receipt. Mr Teo Jin Huang (LLB ’08) (Preserving the Legal Order in Times of Emergency: Should State responses to emergencies ever be extra-constitutional?) and Mr Yang Ziliang (LLB ’08) (Preventive Detention As A Counter-Terrorism Strategy: They Have Stopped Using It And So Should We) were both 2nd runner-ups, receiving $250 each. Rounding up the prize winners were 3rd runner-ups Mr Leonardo Bernard (LLM ’07) (A New Look on Human Rights Through The Eyes of Islam) and Mr Ang Hou Fu (LLB ’10), the only first year student who wrote A Test of Fire: Re-looking Mistake in Contract. They won $100 each. Al the winning entries will be published in the next issue of the Singapore Law Review Journal – watch out for it!

We would like to thank our Advisors, Professor Michael Hor and Dr Kevin Tan for taking time off their busy schedules to judge the Competition.

We are very grateful to T S Oon & Bazul for their very generous sponsorship, without which the SLR Writing Competition & Symposium would not have been possible. Thank you!

T S Oon & Bazul started out primarily as a boutique shipping and admiralty practice. Besides litigation, it also advises on non-contentious matters such as joint venture agreements, pooling agreements, terminal service agreements, ship financing, ship sale and purchase transactions, ship building contracts, charterparties and bills of lading. T S Oon & Bazul has also broadened its areas of practice, and now regularly acts for clients in the fields of aviation, banking, trade finance, international trade, marine insurance, re-insurance, professional indemnity insurance, co-insurance, construction and insolvency.

For those who are interested in finding out more about the firm or doing an internship with the firm, please send your inquiries by email to: general@oonbazul.com. You can also find out more about the firm at its website: www.oonbazul.com

Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue 5 (March/April 2007)

Can Intellectual Property (IP) ethics be taught? How precarious is the position of home-users now? Do the authorities have the right to monitor what I do in my personal space? How many pieces of music and videos can I download before I cross the threshold of liability?

These topics of discussion were bounced about in the 20th Annual Singapore Law Review Lecture: A Panel Discussion on “Music, Video & Movie File Sharing: Trends & Implications”. The spotlight was thrown on the development of IP law in Singapore, with a particular focus on the how IP laws impact the conduct of netizens in cyberspace. It was a timely forum aimed at discussing a dynamic area of law which is set to have a wide-reaching effect on the IT community.

Graced by Attorney-General Chao Hick Tin and sponsored by the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), the Lecture was attended by practising lawyers, NUS students, Junior College students as well as other members of the legal fraternity. The 20th Lecture took on a slightly different tone this year with an interactive panel discussion chaired by guest speakers Mr Steven Ang (Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University), Mr Bryan Tan (Director of Keystone Law Corporation) and Ms Elaine Leong (Senior Assistant Director and Legal Counsel at the Copyright Department in IPOS). Ms Chiam Lu Lin, Assistant Director-General, Legal Counsel and Deputy Registrar of the Registries Division of IPOS kicked off the Lecture with an entertaining and informative speech on the importance of protecting IP rights and IPOS’ role in IP policy-making & regulation.

Coming from different angles of the IP field with often diverging viewpoints regarding the governance of IP law, the panelists offered the audience a variety of views that added much colour to the discussion. Interesting questions which sprang from the audience reflected the curiosity of people in IP law as well as the potential heralded by this particular field of law. Exactly how much copying is too much? Is there a disconnection between the law and the wants of the people? Can importance of the protection of IP rights ever penetrate the public consciousness? There were no perfectly certain answers and neither was there a need for such in the energy-charged healthy exchange of ideas that triggered much thought even after the end of the session. Regardless of the various controversies surrounding the topic, everyone walked away with a firm notion of the bottom-line: Be held back not only by the consequences, but more importantly the appreciation for the owner of the intellectual property you are manipulating.

The evening of conviviality and vivacious forum indeed provided a chance for people from all walks of life to converge and discuss a legal development that beholds much anticipation.

Inaugurated in 1984 with generations of track record, the SLR Lecture has yet closed another chapter of its illustrious history. See you at the 21st Annual SLR Lecture, 2008!

Tan An Qi is a first year law undergraduate and the Deputy Juris editor. – Juris Illuminae Vol. 3 Issue. 5 (March/April 2007)

The keynote event of the year for the Singapore Law Review, the Singapore Law Review Lecture ended on 29 Mar 2007. The longest running lecture series on Law in Singapore adopted a different approach for this year’s topic: “Music, Video & Movie File Sharing: Trends & Implications”. Featuring a panel discussion for the first time, the packed audience, which not only included students from the Law faculty and NUS, but also from Junior Colleges and other institutes of higher learning, took little time to express their views and direct burning questions at our distinguished panellists. Undoubtedly a topic of great interest to students, everyone took away from the lecture a greater understanding of the law related to file sharing and the issues that surround it.

This year’s Lecture was sponsored by IPOS. Do look out for the final issue of Juris for the academic year, which would be released very soon.

The Singapore Law Review Writing Competition and Symposium 2007 was concluded successfully on 15th February at the Moot Court. We hope those of you who came down enjoyed yourselves. We would also like to thank all entrants for their brilliant essays. We are grateful to our sponsors TS Oon & Bazul for making this exciting event possible. We are proud to announce the winners of the Competition:
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NUS Students gained value insight about journal writing from Prof Andrew Perry Simester, who spoke at the Singapore Law Review Writing Workshop on 31st October 2006. Prof Simester went over the rigours of journal writing, from conception to completing the article. Attendees would find Prof Simester’s advice valuable not only for their assignments, but also for the upcoming SLR Writing Competition, the details of which would be soon announced.

The SLR Writing Workshop was kindly sponsored by T S Oon and Bazul.