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Face Recognition Under Adverse Viewing Conditions: Implications For Eyewitness Testimony, Charles C. F. Or, Denise Y. Lim, Siyuan Chen, Alan L. F. Lee Oct 2023

Face Recognition Under Adverse Viewing Conditions: Implications For Eyewitness Testimony, Charles C. F. Or, Denise Y. Lim, Siyuan Chen, Alan L. F. Lee

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Eyewitness testimony forms an important component in deciding whether a case can be prosecuted. Yet, many criminal perpetrators deliberately conceal their faces with disguises or under dim lighting, undermining eyewitness accuracy. This article reviews recent studies to characterize the factors that impair face recognition performance, specifically, various forms of face disguise (e.g., face masks, sunglasses) and different lighting conditions. Research shows that identification accuracy, alongside eyewitness confidence and decision bias, all affect the reliability of eyewitness accounts. A consistent finding across studies is that face-identification accuracy can be improved by matching the viewing conditions during the police lineup with those …


Improperly Obtained Evidence In Criminal Proceedings: An Updated Framework, Siyuan Chen, Zhi Jia Koh, Jian Wei Joel Soon Jan 2022

Improperly Obtained Evidence In Criminal Proceedings: An Updated Framework, Siyuan Chen, Zhi Jia Koh, Jian Wei Joel Soon

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The 2012 amendments to the Evidence Act “significantly broadened the admissibility criteria for expert evidence”; at the same time, the judicial discretion to deny admissibility of relevant expert opinion evidence was also introduced. This article considers the key developments pre- and post-amendments, and in doing so provides an updated framework for prosecutors and defence counsel alike to admit and challenge expert opinion evidence in criminal proceedings. Since it complements earlier articles in this series on similar fact and hearsay evidence, readers are assumed to be broadly familiar with the features of the Evidence Act, such as its admissibility paradigm, the …


Can Delaying An Execution Due To Covid-19 Amount To Unconstitutional Discrimination?, Benjamin Joshua Ong Jan 2022

Can Delaying An Execution Due To Covid-19 Amount To Unconstitutional Discrimination?, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This note discusses the case of Syed Suhail bin Syed Zin v Attorney-General [2021] 1 SLR 809 (CA); [2021] 4 SLR 698 (HC) and its implications for equality law in Singapore.


The Use Of Expert Opinion Evidence In Criminal Proceedings: An Updated Framework, Siyuan Chen, Zhi Jia Koh, Jian Wei Joel Soon Sep 2021

The Use Of Expert Opinion Evidence In Criminal Proceedings: An Updated Framework, Siyuan Chen, Zhi Jia Koh, Jian Wei Joel Soon

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The 2012 amendments to the Evidence Act2 “significantly broadened the admissibility criteria for expert evidence”;3 at the same time, the judicial discretion to deny admissibility of relevant expert opinion evidence was also introduced. This article considers the key developments pre- and post-amendments, and in doing so provides an updated framework for prosecutors and defence counsel alike to admit and challenge expert opinion evidence in criminal proceedings. Since it complements earlier articles in this series on similar fact4 and hearsay evidence,5 readers are assumed to be broadly familiar with the features of the Evidence Act, such as its admissibility paradigm, the …


Deferred Prosecution Agreements In Singapore: What Is The Appropriate Standard For Judicial Approval, Eunice Chua, Benedict Wei Qi Chan Aug 2019

Deferred Prosecution Agreements In Singapore: What Is The Appropriate Standard For Judicial Approval, Eunice Chua, Benedict Wei Qi Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Originating from the US, deferred prosecution agreements (“DPAs”) have made their way to the UK through the Crime and Courts Act 2013 and Singapore through the Criminal Justice Reform Act 2018. The Singapore model for approval of DPAs draws heavily from the UK and both require proof to a court that DPAs are in the “interests of justice” and that their terms are “fair, reasonable and proportionate” before DPAs can be approved. This paper considers the theoretical basis for the court’s approval of DPAs, critically examines the application of the tests for approval of DPAs in the UK and considers …


Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene Jul 2019

Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Government recognises and is committed to legal aid as an integral part of access to justice. Sixty years ago in 1958, Singapore was the first country in Southeast Asia to enact a legal aid scheme, which provided for the establishment of the Legal Aid Bureau (LAB) to provide civil legal aid to persons of limited means. Over the course of independent Singapore’s history, legal aid as part of the overall access to justice has broadened significantly. Members of Parliament make regular calls for more people to qualify and receive government-funded legal aid. The government regards access to justice …


2018 Changes To The Evidence Act And Criminal Procedure Code - The Criminal Justice Reform Bill And Evidence (Amendment) Bill, Siyuan Chen, Eunice Chua Oct 2018

2018 Changes To The Evidence Act And Criminal Procedure Code - The Criminal Justice Reform Bill And Evidence (Amendment) Bill, Siyuan Chen, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Various portions of the Evidence Act and Criminal Procedure Code were amended in 2018 vide the Criminal Justice Reform Bill and Evidence (Amendment) Bill; this was a continuation of a series of gradual but important changes to the criminal justice system that had begun in 2010 when the old Criminal Procedure Code was replaced. This legislation comment outlines and briefly analyses some of the most substantive changes brought about by the 2018 amendments: the video-recording of interviews in criminal proceedings; the introduction of a psychiatrist panel to regulate the reception of evidence from expert psychiatric witnesses in criminal proceedings; and …


It Is Not About The Drugs: A Comparative And Contextual Analysis Of Singapore And European Approach To Drug Issues, Rathna N. Korman Sep 2018

It Is Not About The Drugs: A Comparative And Contextual Analysis Of Singapore And European Approach To Drug Issues, Rathna N. Korman

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article aims to establish that Singapore’s drug policy and approach though not in tandem, is consistent with the elements espoused in the harm reduction approach advocated by the Global Commission on drug policies. The Commission takes the position that drug control nationally has to be aligned with the sustainable development goals agenda approved by the member states in 2015. It has recommended abolishing death penalty for all drug related offences, decriminalizing drug possession and cultivation for personal consumption, implementing non-penal sanctions for all low level drug offenders, and exploring non-penal regulatory models following decriminalization. There is a paradigm shift …


The Sentencing Of "Couriers" Under Section 33b Of The Misuse Of Drugs Act: Pp V Chum Tat Suan [2014] Sgca 59, Benjamin Joshua Ong Dec 2014

The Sentencing Of "Couriers" Under Section 33b Of The Misuse Of Drugs Act: Pp V Chum Tat Suan [2014] Sgca 59, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Sections 33B(1)–(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act (“the Act”)1 allow for a person who commits an offence under ss 5(1) or 7 of the Act to be sentenced to life imprisonment and caning instead of death if two conditions are met.


Policing, Popular Culture And Political Economy: Towards A Social Democratic Criminology [Book Review], Mark Findlay Mar 2012

Policing, Popular Culture And Political Economy: Towards A Social Democratic Criminology [Book Review], Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.


Possession And Knowledge In The Misuse Of Drugs Act: Nagaenthran A/L K Dharmalingam V. Public Prosecutor, Siyuan Chen, Nathaniel Poon-Ern Khng Jan 2012

Possession And Knowledge In The Misuse Of Drugs Act: Nagaenthran A/L K Dharmalingam V. Public Prosecutor, Siyuan Chen, Nathaniel Poon-Ern Khng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

When the Court of Appeal rendered the decision of Tan Kiam Peng in 2008, it was unable to come to a conclusive determination of the correct interpretation of s. 18(2) of the Misuse of Drugs Act, a provision pertaining to the presumption of an accused’s knowledge of the nature of the controlled drugs in his possession. This issue was presented to a differently constituted Court of Appeal in Nagaenthran, which seemingly ruled in favour of the narrow interpretation of s. 18(2) as opposed to the broader interpretation. Nagaenthran, however, did not address the questions raised by Tan Kiam Peng vis-à-vis …


The Case For Criminalising Primary Infringements Of Copyright – Perspectives From Singapore, Cheng Lim Saw Jan 2010

The Case For Criminalising Primary Infringements Of Copyright – Perspectives From Singapore, Cheng Lim Saw

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Hitherto, criminal liability only attached to, inter alia, the commercial manufacture, importation, distribution and sale of infringing copies of copyright material.1 In the noncommercial context, it was also a criminal offence to distribute infringing materials that had a prejudicial impact on the copyright owner.2 The defendant therefore could not be subject to criminal prosecution for infringing acts that were not motivated by profit or that did not involve “prejudicial” distribution. Only civil liability attached to copyright infringements for what may be loosely termed “non-commercial” purposes. All this, of course, changed when the United States–Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) was concluded …


Activating Victim Constituency In International Criminal Justice, Mark Findlay Jul 2009

Activating Victim Constituency In International Criminal Justice, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article lays out why in the context of global crime, crime control and the legitimacy of global governance, a victim constituency makes sense in terms of the stated aims of international criminal justice and of a wider ‘new morality’ on which it should be grounded. The incapacity to confront appropriately the consequences to victims of global crime has tended to mean that international criminal justice and the governance that flows from it are unsatisfactorily entwined with sectarian international relations and narrow cultural inclusion. Therefore, in governance terms alone, the conceptualization of global crime victims should be expanded and emancipated …


Legitimating Criminal Justice Through Community Engagement: Lessons From The Jury Experience, Mark Findlay Nov 2008

Legitimating Criminal Justice Through Community Engagement: Lessons From The Jury Experience, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Fundamentally justifying the jury is the opportunity it provides for community participation in criminal justice and the legitimation function that offers. Indeed, a strong political motivation for the recent introduction of jury trial in several transitional jurisdictions is the public confidence it transfers to the system at large. Recent research on juror comprehension and satisfaction suggests the possibility of interrogating the participation/confidence nexus more intricately. This note argues that it is the quality of the participation and the participant satisfaction which eventuates that predicts juror confidence. Where the legitimacy of criminal justice through juror participation is to be maximised then …


The Globalisation Of Crime, Mark Findlay Jul 1999

The Globalisation Of Crime, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

As with many emergent themes in today's society, globalisation is simple and complex. Put simply, it is the collapsing of time and space; the process whereby through mass communication, multi-national commerce, internationalised politics, and transnational regulation we seem to be moving inexorably towards a single culture. The more complex interpretation of globalisation is as paradox - wherein there are as many pressures driving us in the direction of the common culture as those keeping us apart.


The International Criminal Trial Project [Research Work In Progress], Mark Findlay Jan 1999

The International Criminal Trial Project [Research Work In Progress], Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The debate surrounding the establishment of the International Criminal Court provides a critical example of the conflation of political imperative and criminal justice. In addition, it keenly identifies the manner in which the criminal trial (and its procedures) are viewed by the "international community" as crucial to the resolution of global conflict. The political push for an international criminal law, and its institutions, recently has relied on the connection between the image of a "just" international military intervention, and the necessity to punish "crimes" which either justified that intervention or were perpetrated by those opposed to it. At the conclusion …


Jury Reform: Of Myths And Moral Panics, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay Dec 1997

Jury Reform: Of Myths And Moral Panics, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is now commonplace to assert that the jury performs an important ideological or symbolic role in the criminal justice process. Indeed, it is often argued that this function is more significant than the impact the jury has in practice (see Mungham & Bankowski 1976; Duff & Findlay 1982; Findlay & Duff 1988: 1–7; Darbyshire 1991). Certainly it is true that, in virtually every jurisdiction where the jury exists, only a very small proportion of alleged offenders have their cases heard before a jury. There are two principal reasons for this. First, the vast majority of those charged with criminal …


The Ambiguity Of Accountability: Deaths In Custody, And The Regulation Of Police Power, Mark Findlay Nov 1994

The Ambiguity Of Accountability: Deaths In Custody, And The Regulation Of Police Power, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Policing is power. Police authority relies on transactions or relationships of power and influence. The nature of that authority depends on, and takes its form from specific environments of opportunity. Opportunity is, in turn, designated by the aspirations for such relationships, and structures and processes at work towards their regulation. Police authority can be confirmed either legitimately or illegitimately, depending on its context. Essential to the operation of police authority are the "boundaries of permission" which designate the dominion of police power. A principal regulator of police authority, and therefore an important mechanism whereby boundaries of permission are determined, is …


Prosecutorial Discretion And The Conditional Waiver: Lessons From The Japanese Experience, Mark Findlay Nov 1993

Prosecutorial Discretion And The Conditional Waiver: Lessons From The Japanese Experience, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

A unique characteristic of prosecutorial discretion in Japan is the formal practice of suspension. From the later part of last century, public prosecutors were presented with the discretionary option of waiving or suspending prosecution dependent on certain conditions.


Police Authority, Respect And Shaming, Mark Findlay Jul 1993

Police Authority, Respect And Shaming, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper explores structures of police authority which seek legitimacy though consensus and respect within the ideology of community policing. Respect may be presented as one of the principal, voluntary bonding relationships within any community, and is proposed as a key to analysing the prevention and control potential of policing strategies. Shaming comes into the picture as an indicator of the impact of police authority within different community/cultural settings. While reintegration makes sense in terms of community symbolism, the significance of policing as part of the reintegrative process depends on its status and interaction with community interests.


The Impact Of Criminal Justice Administration On The Penal Sanction, Mark Findlay Mar 1992

The Impact Of Criminal Justice Administration On The Penal Sanction, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

One of the central philosophies underlying the Report of the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons is revealed in the widely quoted aphorism, "A person is sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment". The conditions under which prisoners are contained feature crucially in assessing both the perceptions and reality of prison as a punishment. Expectations for the experience of imprisonment vary enormously. These expectations in many particular forms have been used to justify the expansion and diversification of the penal sanction. In their most modest representation, however, it is hoped that "by treating all prisoners humanely in a manner befitting …


The Hong Kong Jury: A Microcosm Of Society?, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay, Carla Howarth Oct 1990

The Hong Kong Jury: A Microcosm Of Society?, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay, Carla Howarth

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The claim that the jury is a randomly chosen and representative sample of community is an important part of the ideology which currently underpins the institution. Supporters of the jury argue that both its impartiality and its independence from the State are bolstered by the fact that it represents a randomly selected cross-section of the populace. In most common law jurisdictions where the jury operates, various steps have been taken over recent years in order preserve and strengthen the perception of the jury as a "microcosm of democratic society". For example, in England the property qualification for jurors was removed …


Icac And The Community, Mark Findlay Nov 1989

Icac And The Community, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Recently the language of 'community' has been widely used in the official discourse of criminal justice administration in Australia, in an obvious effort to legitimate new developments away from more traditional crime control. Commentators are now asking, why all this 'community speak' about policing, mediation, and corrections? As regards the 'community' perspective of anti-corruption initiatives, it is an attempt to transfer to the new institutions and processes some of the more positive implications which are assumed to flow from community allegiance.


Hunger Strikes And The State's Right To "Force Feed": Recent Australian Experience, Mark Findlay Dec 1984

Hunger Strikes And The State's Right To "Force Feed": Recent Australian Experience, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Whether or not it is the nature of the protest itself which makes it unsuitable for resolution in a court-room situation, the case law relating to "hunger strikes" (and State's response) is both sparse and insignificant. Perhaps on the basis of its uniqueness alone, the case of Schneidas v. Corrective Services Commission(New South Wales) and Others should be of particular interest to jurists on both sides of the Irish border.


Jury Vetting: The Jury Under Attack, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay Jul 1983

Jury Vetting: The Jury Under Attack, Peter Duff, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The English jury has recently been undergoing various alterations. These changes have their roots in assumptions, often not clearly identified, about the nature and purpose of the jury within the criminal justice system. Once the purpose and ideals of the jury system are identified, and there may be arguments about what they are,' it becomes apparent that there may be a conflict about how they should be put into practice. The state and its agencies may take one view whilst others may differ. An example of one such conflict is the controversy over the newly discovered practice of 'jury vetting'.