Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From Apathy To Multi-Stakeholder Action For Our Biodiversity, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan highlighted that the public consumption of sharks’ fin in Singapore has declined in recent years as a result of successful "say no to shark fin" campaigns. However, Singapore was the third largest importer of shark fin between 2005 and 2013. Shark conservation is not about sharks alone but about sustainability, oceanic health, and robust commercial fisheries. It's also about enlightened self-interest at its core. As a major food source, the oceans are critical to our food supply and security. As a maritime nation, commercial fisheries are important to us as well. Much more …

Trust Is Vital In Efforts To Counter Terrorism, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan highlighted inter-faith ties in many parts of the world are visibly under stress. Minority communities increasingly find themselves under a pall of suspicion, distrust and danger. Too often, moral panic and probing questions have been raised over the viability of multiculturalism as the integrative social glue in diverse societies. He pointed out governments do not defeat terrorism on their own. Instead, societies defeat terrorism by nurturing from the ground up an effective and sustainable bulwark against violent extremism and the divisive forces that seek to destroy our way of life and our common …

Independent Directors In Singapore: Puzzling Compliance Requiring Explanation, Dan W. Puchniak, Luh Luh Lan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

At first blush, the rise of independent directors in Singapore provides a straightforward example of a successful legal transplant from the West to Asia. In 2001, Singapore implemented a U.K.-inspired Code of Corporate Governance, which required the adoption of American-style independent directors on a "comply or explain" basis. Shortly thereafter, an overwhelming 98% of Singapore-listed companies reported full compliance. This, combined with Singapore's world-leading economic success, ostensibly confirmed the Anglo-American-cum- global conventional wisdom that American-style independent directors are required for good corporate governance.Using hand-collected data from 245 codes of corporate governance from eighty-seven jurisdictions, this Article reveals, however, that Singapore's …

Soft Law And The Development Of Norms And Trust In Countering The Terrorist Threat: Engaging The Faith Communities In Post-9/11 Singapore, Eugene K. B. Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On July 6, 2010, Singapore's Internal Security Department (ISD) announced that a “self-radicalized,” full-time national serviceman had been detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) since April 4, 2010. Muhammad Fadil bin Abdul Hamid (Fadil), age 20, would be detained under the ISA for two years in the first instance. According to the media statement, Fadil had become convinced that “it was his religious duty to undertake armed jihad alongside fellow militants and strive for martyrdom.” According to local media reports, Fadil was the sixth known case of self-radicalization. Fadil was subsequently released on a Restriction Order on April 4, …

A Domestic Solution For Transboundary Harm: Singapore's Haze Pollution Law, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Toxic ‘haze’ from fires, often burning over dry peatland in Indonesia, has affected millions across Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as parts of the Philippines and Thailand. For Singapore in particular, this slash-and-burn method of clearing land in Indonesia to cultivate crops such as oil palm has been an annual problem since 1972. However, 2015 stands out as the year Singapore experienced one of its worst episodes of haze pollution. Air quality based on the Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) plummeted to the ‘very unhealthy’ and ‘hazardous ranges’ for close to 50 days. Singapore suffered an estimated SGD $700 million …

Managing The Inter-Cultural Dimensions Of A Mediation Effectively: A Proposed Pre-Mediation Intake Instrument, Dorcas Quek Anderson, Diana Knight

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Being a culturally responsive mediator has become increasingly challenging amidst the growing cultural complexity within many societies. Drawing on the existing research on culture and the authors’ experiences of mediating disputes amongst diverse disputants in Australia and Singapore, this paper proposes an emic-constructivist approach for the mediator to understand the individual disputant’s unique cultural preferences. It also recommends bringing forward the exercise of understanding cultural preferences through conducting pre-mediation intake interviews. It is argued that this approach enables the mediator to embrace the parties’ cultural complexity and to design the mediation process based on their rich milieu of preferences. Finally, …

Navigating The New Terrain Of A Reserved Election, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed the workings of the upcoming Singapore presidential election. He noted that as the next election is a reserved one, all the more voters should specially consider a candidate’s commitment and contributions to multiracialism. On the reserved election mechanism, Associate Prof Tan noted that it helps ensure that the presidency is not only accessible, but is seen to be accessible to all the major racial communities in Singapore.“It functions as an inter-generational safeguard for minority representation, while not going as far as mechanically rotating the presidency among the major races, …

How Should Bare Arbitration Clauses Be Enforced By The Courts?, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Time To Hold Last Rites For Martial-Rape Immunity, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin said earlier this month in Parliament that the Government was “actively reviewing” a husband’s limited immunity from marital rape, he asserted that a married woman should have equal protection against sexual violence as an unmarried woman.

Can Wto Law Keep Up With The Internet?, Henry Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The regulation of Internet activities presents special challenges to the World Trade Organization (WTO), as its rules were mostly formulated in the pre-Internet era. The first difficulty lies in determining whether Internet activities should be classified as goods or services, as they are subject to different regulatory frameworks. Traditionally, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) only applies to goods. It was not until the establishment of the WTO in 1995 that services trade was finally brought within the scope of the multilateral trading system. While some activities, such as the online delivery of books and audiovisual products could …

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong Officially Opens Smu School Of Law Building And Kwa Geok Choo Law Library, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases

Singapore Management University (SMU) today celebrated the official opening of its new School of Law building and the Kwa Geok Choo Law Library. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was the Guest-of-Honour at the ceremony, which was attended by 800 distinguished guests, donors, faculty, students, and SMU’s partners in the legal fraternity. Completed in December 2016, the new School of Law building now stands as a distinctive landmark at the junction of Armenian Street and Stamford Road/Fort Canning Link. The 23,000-square-metre building contains modern facilities to enrich the learning and teaching experience of SMU law students and faculty. It will …

Illegality And The Civil Law In Singapore: Lessons From The Uk? Patel V Mirza [2016] 3 Wlr 399; [2016] Uksc 42, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The law on the illegality defence in Singapore is in a fragmented state. In Patel v Mirza, the UK Supreme Court attempted to overhaul this notoriously confusing area of the law, and presented various ideas which are of potential interest to its development in Singapore.

Weak Law V Strong Ties: An Empirical Study Of Business Investment, Law And Political Connections In China, Wei Zhang, Ji Li

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Based on a large-scale survey of Chinese entrepreneurs, our study explores how institutions (formal and informal) influence investment decisions made by private companies. The study finds that, consistent with the conventional view, a more effective legal system is correlated with short-term general investment, and that the judiciary is important mainly because of its restraint over the state. The role of effective courts, however, diminishes when private entrepreneurs consider making long-term investment. We find a positive association between the entrepreneurs’ political backgrounds and their R&D investment, suggesting that Chinese courts, in spite of decades of reform, are not yet viewed as …

An Empirical Study On The Singapore Court Of Appeal’S Citation Of Academic Works: Reflections On The Relationship Between Singapore’S Judiciary And Academia, Wui Ling Cheah, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the light of Singapore’s aspiration to be a centre of legal ideas in the region, it is opportune to examine the Singapore courts’ use of legal scholarship. This article provides a preliminary map of the Singapore Court of Appeal’s citation practices. It provides an overview of the Singapore Court of Appeal’s use or citation of legal scholarship in its decisions over the past 50 years. It identifies and evaluates trends in the Singapore Court of Appeal’s citations of academic material and the types of academic material cited.

Have The Singapore Courts Faltered In The Enforcement Of Arbitration Agreements?, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Institutional Regime Shift In Intellectual Property Rights And Innovation Strategies Of Firms In China, Kenneth G. L. Huang, Xuesong Geng, Heli Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study develops a novel conceptual framework to understand the differential impact of formal institutional regime shift in intellectual property rights on the innovation and patenting strategies of Chinese and Western firms operating in China. We argue that to the extent that Chinese firms have been deeply embedded in China’s informal institutions,they are less responsive to formal institutional changes than Western firms operating in China. Using the major China patent law reform of 2001 as an exogenous event, we find results consistent with our key arguments: With the strengthening of the previously weak (utility model) patent protection, Chinese firms are …

A Coming Of Age For Mediation In Singapore? Mediation Act 2016, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Mediation Act 2016 was recently passed by the Singapore Parliament and is soon to come into operation. This legislative comment compares the Act’s key provisions to the common law principles concerning confidentiality and admissibility, enforcement of mediated settlement agreements and stay of proceedings pending mediation. It argues that the Act has refined the common law in certain areas, but has brought about greater uncertainty in other aspects. It also discusses how the major provisions are likely to be applied by the court in light of similar developments in other jurisdictions.

Ns’ Role In Defining The Vision Of A New Society, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the introduction of National Service (NS), a cornerstone of our defence strategy and a hallmark of the Singaporean way of life. In a short span of 50 years, NS has come a long way and continues to mould generations of Singaporean men.

Pm Lee Hsien Loong's Speech At The Official Opening Of Singapore Management University Law School Building And The Kwa Geok Choo Law Library On 15 March 2017, Hsien Loong Lee

SMU Press Releases

Full text of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong speech to open the new SMU law school building and the Kwa Geok Choo Law Library. He reminised about his mother Mdm Kwa Geok Choo, and his thoughts about the future of the legal profession and how the government can support them.

Drones, Ai And Getting Undergrads Ready For Great Disruption, Tan K. B. Eugene, Thomas Menkhoff, Siew Ning Kan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a joint commentary, SMU Academic Director (MSc in Innovation) and Professor of Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources (Education) Thomas Menkhoff; SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan; and SMU LKCSB Adjunct Faculty Kan Siew Ning, highlighted that the University recently launched an inter-disciplinary course on emerging technology, focusing on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV or drones), robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI). One key learning outcome is to enable students to appreciate, in a multi-disciplinary setting, the huge business potential of emerging technology in diverse areas - such as logistics, supply chain management, transportation, search and rescue, military, and scientific studies. …

More Public Education Needed On Changes To Ep System, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The office of Singapore’s Elected President is often misunderstood. Although it has been part of our system of institutional checks and balances since 1991, a popular misconception is that the President is a centre of political power unto itself.

Labour Protection For The Vulnerable: An Evaluation Of The Salary And Injury Claims System For Migrant Workers In Singapore, Tamera Fillinger, Nicholas Harrigan, Stephanie Chok, Amirah Amirrudin, Patricia Meyer, Meera Rajah, Debbie Fordyce

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This research seeks to review and analyze the protections afforded to migrant workers in Singapore who bring salary and injury claims to the Ministry of Manpower for resolution. Our focus is male Work Permit holders from Bangladesh, China, and India who make up the majority of the workforce in Singapore’s construction and marine sectors. Work Permit holders are the lowest wage category of foreign workers and comprise nearly a third of the overall workforce. While these workers play an important role in building the nation, they face workplace issues that many would not associate with a modern economy.

Jobs For Justice(S): Corruption In The Supreme Court Of India, Madhav S. Aney, Shubhankar Dam, Giovanni Ko

Research Collection School Of Economics

We investigate whether judicial decisions are affected by career concerns of judges byanalysing two questions: Do judges respond to pandering incentives by ruling in favourof the government in the hope of receiving jobs after retiring from the Court? Does thegovernment actually reward judges who ruled in its favour with prestigious jobs? To answerthese questions we construct a dataset of all Supreme Court of India cases involving thegovernment from 1999 till 2014, with an indicator for whether the decision was in its favouror not. We find that pandering incentives have a causal effect on judicial decision-making.The exposure of a judge to …

Mergers & Acquisitions: The Asian Way, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Professor Wan Wai Yee studies the laws that govern mergers and acquisitions in Asia’s fast-changing landscape.

See the related publications:

• Mergers and Acquisitions in Singapore: Law and Practice
• Independent financial advisers' opinions for public takeovers and related party transactions in Singapore
• Regulating squeeze-out techniques by controlling shareholders: The divergence between Hong Kong and Singapore

Asia’S Legal Tiger, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

The growing globalisation of Singapore’s legal profession presents both opportunities and challenges, says Professor Goh Yihan.

See his books:

• Singapore Chronicles: Law;
• Singapore Law: 50 years in the making

Research@Smu: Connecting The Dots, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

The word “Management” in the name of our university was carefully and deliberately chosen to address the needs of institutions and decisionmakers across all segments of society: business enterprises and the private sector, government and the public sector, and civil society and the people sector. Unless you are already familiar with the breadth and depth of research output from Singapore Management University (SMU), you would naturally assume that we were a “management” university that was focusing exclusively on business – in essence, a large business school. The reality is quite different.

Through this book, you will gain a more complete …

The Eu As A Global Actor In Reforming The International Investment Regime In Light Of Sustainable Development, Stefanie Schacherer

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The international investment law regime is undergoing a process of reform. The guiding paradigm of this reform is the principle of sustainable development. The EU, through its exclusive competence over foreign direct investment, has become a significant actor on the stage of international investment law governance. According to recent statements of the EU institutions, the EU seeks to shape its policy to be consistent with the principle of sustainable development. In more concrete terms this means that EU investment law making shall be consistent with core labour standards, environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources as well as with …

The Blame Game, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

When parties outsource duties to independent contractors who then carry out the work negligently, is the hiring party also responsible? Professor Low Kee Yang believes so.

See the papers:

• Non-delegable duty of care: Woodland v Swimming Teachers Association and beyond
• Non-delegable duty after Tiong Aik

Curial Deference In Singapore Public Law: Autochthonous Evolution To Buttress Good Governance And The Rule Of Law, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Central to the separation of powers and the rule of law, judicial review empowers the courts to examine the exercise of discretionary power. While there is no general doctrine of deference, judical review in Singapore emphasises the green-light approach in facilitating good governance, and is sensitive to the political, socio-cultural and economic context. However, the jurisprudence also indicates a nuanced and robust approach to better regulate the decision-makers' latitude. A categorical approach towards justiciability is eschewed, and judicial scrutiny adopts varying intensities of review, taking into account the rights of the individual vis-a-vis the fair and just protection of governmental …

The Legality Of Data Residency Requirements: How Can The Trans-Pacific Partnership Help?, Shin-Yi Peng, Han-Wei Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Article 14.13 of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement – the data localization (DL) clause – represents the first time that a far-reaching preferential trade agreement (PTA) seeks to reduce protectionism arising from data residency (DR) requirements. The DL clause, however, is linked to a loose GATT Article XX-like exception: Article 14.13(3)(b), which allows the parties to maintain DR measures to achieve a legitimate public policy objective as long as the measure in question can satisfy the ‘necessity test’. The ambiguity of the DL exception will be clarified by TPP tribunals when a real dispute occurs. After examining the rationales of …