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Articles 1 - 30 of 1932
Full-Text Articles in Law
The Future Of The International Financial System: The Emerging Cbdc Network And Its Impact On Regulation, Heng Wang, Simin Gao
The Future Of The International Financial System: The Emerging Cbdc Network And Its Impact On Regulation, Heng Wang, Simin Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Central bank digital currency (CBDC) is a digital form of fiat currency. CBDC has the potential to be a game challenger in the international financial system, bringing increased complexities arising from technology and regulatory considerations, as well as generating greater currency competition. As more states begin exploring CBDC, the interactions between actors may lead to the emergence of a new CBDC network. What shape would the emerging CBDC network take? What would its network effects be? What would be the impact of the CBDC network on the international financial system, or the global financial network? This article explores these questions …
Tax Events In The Life Cycle Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Tax Events In The Life Cycle Of Digital Tokens, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Digital tokens, or crypto assets, are digital financial assets based on distributed ledger technology. They come in a considerable variety of forms and have been used in a large number of different ways. Yet, relatively few tax laws of any jurisdiction mention digital tokens specifically. It is therefore necessary to consider how orthodox tax rules can be applied to transactions involving digital tokens. Given the broad range of forms which digital tokens and transactions involving them can take, this may appear to be a daunting task. A framework providing a rough guide on how to navigate this somewhat new area …
Report On The Challenges Which Digital Assets Pose For Tax Systems With A Special Focus On Developing Countries, Vincent Ooi
Report On The Challenges Which Digital Assets Pose For Tax Systems With A Special Focus On Developing Countries, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The paper highlights the need for governments to carefully consider the implications which the rise of crypto assets can have on tax systems, noting that the absence of a deliberate policy position would be a policy decision in itself, with consequences for the tax base. It discusses four main classes of tax risks which crypto assets pose.Firstly, crypto assets and crypto transactions can act as ‘functional substitutes’ for traditional assets and transactions. As existing tax laws are drafted without crypto assets in mind, this can produce a host of unintended tax consequences and produce opportunities for tax arbitrage.Secondly, the values …
Two Decades After Salini V Morocco: The Case For Retaining The Salini Test With Modifications, Darius Chan, Justin Lai
Two Decades After Salini V Morocco: The Case For Retaining The Salini Test With Modifications, Darius Chan, Justin Lai
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The definition of an investment under Article 25 of the ICSID Convention continues to attract a divergence of views. Ever since its use in 2001, the Salini Test, in its various forms, has become the predominant method that tribunals use to determine whether there is an investment. However, the Salini Test is hardly free from controversy, and suffers from two significant issues. First, its criteria are often subject to differing interpretations, leading to confusion over how the test should actually be applied. Second, the Salini Test has lost its legal force over time, as it has been relegated to factors …
Falsehoods, Foreign Interference, And Compelled Speech In Singapore, Kenny Chng
Falsehoods, Foreign Interference, And Compelled Speech In Singapore, Kenny Chng
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Online misinformation endangers the infrastructure of fact essential to public discourse and presents an even greater threat where it is being utilised as a weapon by hostile state actors. In recognition of these dangers, Singapore has implemented legal measures to combat online misinformation, enacting in quick succession the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) and the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act (FICA). These statutes open up novel frontiers of development for Singapore's free speech jurisprudence. Indeed, these statutes confer upon government authorities the power to compel the authors of certain material to display notices stating that the material contains …
A Review Of The 2021/22 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen
A Review Of The 2021/22 International Moots Season, Siyuan Chen
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This is the eighth1 annual review of Singapore’s performance in international moot court competitions.2 An overview of the results for this season is presented at Table #1 below, while Tables #2 and #3 provide a snapshot of the results of the past 10 seasons. Despite the substantial lifting of travel restrictions throughout the world, the 2021/22 international moots season remained a virtually conducted one for many competitions, though competitions such as IP, Stetson, PAX, and WTO saw a much-welcomed return to in-person hearings, allowing students to compete and interact with teams and judges from around the world at places such …
Legal Dispositionism And Artificially-Intelligent Attributions, Jerrold Soh
Legal Dispositionism And Artificially-Intelligent Attributions, Jerrold Soh
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
It is conventionally argued that because an artificially-intelligent (AI) system acts autonomously, its makers cannot easily be held liable should the system's actions harm. Since the system cannot be liable on its own account either, existing laws expose victims to accountability gaps and need to be reformed. Recent legal instruments have nonetheless established obligations against AI developers and providers. Drawing on attribution theory, this paper examines how these seemingly opposing positions are shaped by the ways in which AI systems are conceptualised. Specifically, folk dispositionism underpins conventional legal discourse on AI liability, personality, publications, and inventions and leads us towards …
Repeal Of The Recja And Transfer Of Countries To The Refja, Adeline Chong
Repeal Of The Recja And Transfer Of Countries To The Refja, Adeline Chong
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Singapore’s Reciprocal Enforcement of Commonwealth Judgments Act 1921 (‘RECJA’) is based on the UK Administration of Justice Act 1920 and its Reciprocal Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act 1959 (‘REFJA’) is based on the UK Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933. In 2019, the government amended the REFJA in significant ways (previously detailed here), expanding its scope to include the registration of judgments from non-superior courts of gazetted countries, judicial settlements, non-money judgments and interlocutory judgments. At the same time, the RECJA was repealed from a date to be determined by the government.
New Investment Rulemaking In Asia: Between Regionalism And Domestication, Pasha L. Hsieh
New Investment Rulemaking In Asia: Between Regionalism And Domestication, Pasha L. Hsieh
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The article analyses investment rulemaking in new Asian regionalism in the context of evolving national legislation and regional trade strategies. It argues that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) represent Asia's pragmatic incrementalism in reforming the investment regime. The process reinforces the relationship between international economic law and domestic investment laws. In tandem with transforming international investment agreements, ASEAN expedited investment and services trade, and established the modern investor–state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. The RCEP further buttresses the ASEAN centrality in regional frameworks by consolidating ASEAN Plus One agreements. Yet, the RCEP's …
Defeasible Semantics For L4, Guido Governatori, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Defeasible Semantics For L4, Guido Governatori, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Centre for Computational Law
The importance of defeasibility for legal reasoning has been investigated for a long time (see among other [10, 3, 11]). This notion mostly concerns the issue that textual provisions of (legal) norms typically provide prima facie conditions for their applicability, but to understand a norm in full, we have to evaluate the norms in the context in which the norm is used and to see if other norms prevent it either to apply or to be effective. In other words, when evaluating norms, we must account for possible (prima facie) conflicts and exceptions. Indeed, in general, norms first provide the …
Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Tax Issues In The Metaverse, Vincent Ooi, Daryl Loy
Virtual Worlds, Real Money: Tax Issues In The Metaverse, Vincent Ooi, Daryl Loy
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
When it comes to the tax world, the starting point is that international tax law does not currently give any special status to a meta realm as a distinct jurisdiction. The metaverse is not a term of art recognised by tax law. However, what we are likely to see is a change in business models and behavioural patterns, leading to different kinds of taxable events becoming either more or less prominent. Tax law may not inevitably change but the tax issues of the day will.In this article, we highlight three broad business models that are likely to feature prominently in …
Personal Service Companies And The Tax Avoidance Surcharge In Singapore, Vincent Ooi, Ben Chester Cheong
Personal Service Companies And The Tax Avoidance Surcharge In Singapore, Vincent Ooi, Ben Chester Cheong
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Incorporation of personal service companies provide tax and non-tax advantages. With the introduction of a tax avoidance surcharge in Singapore, incorporation for non-tax advantages risks additional “tax costs” if challenged by the revenue authorities, introducing uncertainty and litigation costs. Instead of relying on a GAAR, targeted measures should restrict tax advantages to the first company incorporated by each individual taxpayer.
Characterisation And Choice Of Law For Knowing Receipt, Adeline Chong
Characterisation And Choice Of Law For Knowing Receipt, Adeline Chong
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Knowing receipt requires the satisfaction of disparate elements under English domestic law. Its characterisation under domestic law is also unsettled. These in turn affect the issues of characterisation and choice of law at the private international law level as knowing receipt sits at the intersection of the laws of equity, restitution, wrongs and property. This paper argues that under the common law, knowing receipt ought to be considered as sui generis for choice of law purposes and governed by the law of closest connection to the claim. Where the Rome II Regulation applies, knowing receipt fits better within the tort …
International Commercial Mediation And Dispute Resolution Contracts, Nadja Alexander, Natasha Tunkel
International Commercial Mediation And Dispute Resolution Contracts, Nadja Alexander, Natasha Tunkel
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Every transaction has the potential to go wrong and international commercial contracts are not spared this plight. It is when an international commercial contract fails – irrespective of the reasons, that the impact of different legal and cultural backgrounds of the parties come to light. The obvious venue for commercial disputes to be decided is generally understood to be in court (litigation)2 or before an arbitral tribunal (arbitration)3. However, there are numerous other alternative dispute mechanisms4 available to parties that are less well known and also deserve consideration; not least because they offer parties methods of resolving the dispute between …
Compliance Through Model Checking, Avishkar Mahajan, Strecker Martin, Seng Joe Watt, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Compliance Through Model Checking, Avishkar Mahajan, Strecker Martin, Seng Joe Watt, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Centre for Computational Law
In this short note, we describe part of a case study about Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act, which we first presented in-formally, then formally as interacting Timed Automata. From these, we derive desiderata on a language and verification framework for reasoning about compliance.
Driving-Decision Making Of Autonomous Vehicle According To Queensland Overtaking Traffic Rules, Hanif Bhuiyan, Guido Governatori, Avishkar Mahajan, Andry Rakotonirainy, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Driving-Decision Making Of Autonomous Vehicle According To Queensland Overtaking Traffic Rules, Hanif Bhuiyan, Guido Governatori, Avishkar Mahajan, Andry Rakotonirainy, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Centre for Computational Law
Making a driving decision according to traffic rules is a challenging task for improving the safety of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). Traffic rules often contain open texture expressions and exceptions, which makes it hard for AVs to follow them. This paper introduces a Defeasible Deontic Logic (DDL) baseddriving decision-making methodology for AVs. We use DDL to formalize traffic rules and facilitate automated reasoning. DDL is used to effectively handle rule exceptions and resolve open texture expressions in rules. Furthermore, we supplement the information provided by the traffic rules by an ontology for AV driving behaviour and environment information. This methodology performs …
China And Trade And Investment Liberalization, Henry S. Gao
China And Trade And Investment Liberalization, Henry S. Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
China’s rise in the international trade and investment system is one of the most important events of the 21st century. Many non-Chinese observers regard China’s rapid ascent with surprise or even suspicion, but most Chinese believe that China was simply restoring its rightful place in the world, a position it held for thousands of years until the glory was lost in the mid-nineteenth Century.Regardless of one’s view on the issue, however, no one can deny the importance of China in the international trade and investment system today. At the same time, one should also take note that China’s relationship with …
Trade And Transfer Of Environmentally Sound Technology In Asean: Mapping Priorities To Economic Treaty Negotiations, Locknie Hsu
Trade And Transfer Of Environmentally Sound Technology In Asean: Mapping Priorities To Economic Treaty Negotiations, Locknie Hsu
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (“ASEAN”) share common objectives in economic, sociocultural and political-security integration. Addressing environmental concerns is animportant consideration which traverses different areas of integration policymaking. ASEAN has, in recent years, emphasised the importance of environmental considerations, including environmentally sound technologies (“ESTs”) which may contribute to its climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts, in its law and policymaking. This article discusses the nexus between ASEAN’s needs for the transfer of ESTs and the group’s economic treaty negotiations. Through a “mapping” of such needs to free trade agreementareas, it aims to provide a pathway …
Shaping New Interregionalism: The Eu-Singapore Free Trade Agreement And Beyond, Pasha L. Hsieh
Shaping New Interregionalism: The Eu-Singapore Free Trade Agreement And Beyond, Pasha L. Hsieh
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
The article examines the theoretical concept of interregionalism in the context of the evolving framework between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). As the EU's first free trade agreement (FTA) with an ASEAN country, the EU-Singapore FTA is a pathfinder agreement that signifies a new phase of interregionalism and the EU's new Asia strategy after the Treaty of Lisbon. The article argues that the innovative designs of the EU-Singapore FTA will shape the normative development of EU-ASEAN relations in the post-pandemic era. It also cautions that a comparative analysis of EU and US agreements …
Limited Shareholder Inspection Rights In Singapore: Worrying Legal Gap Or Unnecessary For Rankings?, Dan W. Puchniak, Tang Samantha S.
Limited Shareholder Inspection Rights In Singapore: Worrying Legal Gap Or Unnecessary For Rankings?, Dan W. Puchniak, Tang Samantha S.
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Singapore’s formal corporate law and governance rules normally meet or exceed global standards – which explains why it regularly tops prominent Asian and global rankings for good corporate governance. As such, Singapore’s outlier status, as the only leading economy in Asia that does not provide a specific mechanism for shareholders to access corporate information, is puzzling.In this Article we aim to solve this puzzle by offering two explanations that appear to make sense out of Singapore’s outlier status as having an unusually restrictive shareholder inspection rights regime. The first, demand-side, explanation is that Singapore’s controlling shareholder-dominated landscape generates little demand …
An End-To-End Pipeline From Law Text To Logical Formulas, Aarne Ranta, Inari Listenmaa, Jerrold Soh, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
An End-To-End Pipeline From Law Text To Logical Formulas, Aarne Ranta, Inari Listenmaa, Jerrold Soh, Meng Weng (Huang Mingrong) Wong
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
We propose a pipeline for converting natural English law texts into logical formulas via a series of structural representations. Text texts are first parsed using a formal grammar derived from light-weight annotations. An intermediate representation called assembly logic is then used for logical interpretation and supports translations to different back-end logics and visualisations. The approach, while rule-based and explainable, is also robust: it can deliver useful results from day one, but allows subsequent refinements and variations.
The Value Of Fiduciary Duties: Evidence From En Bloc Sales In Singapore, Jianfeng Hu, Kelvin F. K. Low, Wei Zhang
The Value Of Fiduciary Duties: Evidence From En Bloc Sales In Singapore, Jianfeng Hu, Kelvin F. K. Low, Wei Zhang
Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business
This paper examines the impact of fiduciary duties on collective asset sales in the case of owners acting as delegates for other owners, thereby potentially inducing conflicts of interests. Our identification strategy exploits a unique legal shock in Singapore, which established fiduciary duties in those transactions in the real estate market known colloquially as en bloc sales. The imposition of fiduciary duties caused the price premium of units sold via en bloc sales to increase over units ineligible for en bloc sale, as well as over units that, although eligible for en bloc sale, are sold individually. In addition, this …
Digital Services Trade And Trade Agreements, Henry S. Gao
Digital Services Trade And Trade Agreements, Henry S. Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Trade agreements have become the main forum for the regulation of digital services trade issues over the past decade. This chapter provides a comprehensive examination of the regulation of digital services trade in trade agreements, first reviewing the rules in the World Trade Organization (WTO), then comparing the approaches between the United States (US), the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and the European Union (EU), and explaining the reasons for their deep differences. This chapter further analyzes such provisions in trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific, which has become one of the most dynamic regions in terms of new …
Constitutional Equality And Executive Action: A Comparative Perspective To The Comparator Problem, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng
Constitutional Equality And Executive Action: A Comparative Perspective To The Comparator Problem, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
A general right to equality is a common feature of written constitutions around the world. Interesting questions arise when one seeks to apply such rights to discrete executive acts. The subject of such acts has necessarily been singled out from a multitude of possibilities for the purposes of the act. To determine whether a differentiation has occurred such that like cases have not been treated alike, to what or whom should this subject be compared? The question of how one selects the proper comparator becomes especially significant when one notes that whether the equal protection guarantee is triggered at all …
Book Review: Mediation Ethics: A Practitioner's Guide Edited By Omer Shapira Ed, Dorcas Quek Anderson
Book Review: Mediation Ethics: A Practitioner's Guide Edited By Omer Shapira Ed, Dorcas Quek Anderson
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
A review of the book Mediation ethics: A practitioner's guide, edited by Omer Shapira. Mediation ethics have been consistently featured in mediation training courses and mediation ethical principles have also been encapsulated in mediation providers’ codes of conduct for mediators. However, mediation ethics have probably inspired fewer publications and academic discussions than the popular topic of mediation skills. It is thus timely that Shapira has edited this publication focusing on mediation ethics. Published in 2021, this collection of reflections on mediation ethics has been written primarily for the American mediation profession, with frequent references made to the US Model Standards …
Buyer Beware: Avoiding Pitfalls When Buying Fine Art, Gerard Ng, Vincent Ooi
Buyer Beware: Avoiding Pitfalls When Buying Fine Art, Gerard Ng, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Our article introduces the reader to crucial concepts such as provenance, authenticity and ownership of fine art. It explains how one can check the established art databases and registers to conduct due diligence searches.We also explain the importance of a written contract for both buyers and sellers. The current common practice of transacting without a written contract can lead to considerable difficulties if issues with the artwork are discovered in the future.At the minimum, a contract should make it clear that the seller has the full responsibility for the accuracy of the provenance, particularly in cases where the artwork has …
The Curious Case Of The 0.1 Per Cent Service Charge, Vincent Ooi
The Curious Case Of The 0.1 Per Cent Service Charge, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Just before 1 August 2022, a coffeeshop zi char chain announced that it would impose a 0.1% service charge. This decision was reversed within two weeks due to "customers' reactions".While the rate might appear to be absurdly low and not worth the trouble of imposing, this article suggests that there was more to the situation than first meets the eye. GST regulations require merchants to list GST inclusive prices unless the goods and services are provided by hotels and F&B outlets that are subject to a service charge. The 0.1% rate is thus explicable as a likely attempt to get …
The Investment Chapter In The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Enhanced Rules Without Enforcement Mechanism, Henry S. Gao
The Investment Chapter In The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Enhanced Rules Without Enforcement Mechanism, Henry S. Gao
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This Chapter examines the legal rules in the investment chapter in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). It starts with an overview and summary of the main provisions in the chapter, followed by an assessment of the rules by comparing established free trade agreements (FTAs), especially the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership. In particular, it notes that the chapter, whilst largely following the established approaches to investment in other FTAs, also includes important twists to the common rules to favour the host states. The last part discusses the conspicuous absence of an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism, its pros and cons, …
Promoting Constitutional Literacy: What Role For Courts?, De Maartje Visser
Promoting Constitutional Literacy: What Role For Courts?, De Maartje Visser
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
This article explores the role of constitutional judges in advancing constitutional literacy, understood as knowledge relating to the functioning of the constitutional order. Part of the inquiry is descriptive and geared towards identifying the modalities that courts today use to cultivate such literacy among the public, or segments thereof. The article also poses normative questions about literacy-boosting efforts. How do these relate to typical judicial functions? Are courts well-placed and equipped to disseminate constitutional knowledge? Based on an analysis of judicial practices, it is suggested that lay individuals are increasingly treated as a key constituency by courts, warranting the development …
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Equity Interests, Vincent Ooi
Holding Residential Property On Inter Vivos Trusts In Singapore: Transfers Of Equity Interests, Vincent Ooi
Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law
Following amendments to the ACD regime in Singapore, transferring equity interests to and from a trust with no beneficial owners will attract ACD, as will the exercise of a power of appointment by a trustee to grant equity interests to a beneficiary. Renunciation of interests in a bare trust will also attract ACD. Together with the introduction of ABSD (Trust), it is now impractical to use trusts to hold residential properties for succession planning purposes. Remaining options are to gift the properties without any strings attached or bequeath the properties in a will and risk subsequent changes to death taxation.