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Singapore Management University

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Articles 61 - 90 of 872

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Comparative Lessons In Sectional Title Laws: Mitigating Urban Inequality In South Africa, Edward S. W. Ti Jun 2022

Comparative Lessons In Sectional Title Laws: Mitigating Urban Inequality In South Africa, Edward S. W. Ti

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Urban inequality in South Africa is a formidable problem that is linked to the injustices of its historical apartheid past. This paper identifies sectional titles, a form of property ownership where proprietors wholly own their apartment unit while co-owning the land and common property, as critical to providing more affordable housing. Sectional title schemes mitigate urban inequality by giving a greater proportion of the country the opportunity to own legally secure, well-located dwellings while serving as a platform where communal living could take place. Two suggestions how sectional title legislation can further alleviate aspects of urban inequality are made (1) …


A Plea For Survival: Can The Return To Eco-Centrism Strengthen The Legal Protection Of Nature In Sri Lanka?, Asanka Edirisinghe, Michelle Mei Ling Lim Jun 2022

A Plea For Survival: Can The Return To Eco-Centrism Strengthen The Legal Protection Of Nature In Sri Lanka?, Asanka Edirisinghe, Michelle Mei Ling Lim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The right to life of all living beings and the duty of humans to co-exist with nature have been recognized in Sri Lankan tradition and religious practice for centuries. Yet, environmental destruction, degradation and pollution due to human activities have become a common phenomenon in contemporary Sri Lanka. Anthropocentric thinking pervades Sri Lankan jurisprudence. Laws and judicial decisions have largely failed to recognize the rights of nature to be protected for its relational and intrinsic values. There is also limited acknowledgement that the very survival of human beings depends on the continuous existence of Mother Earth. Significant shifts from human-centred …


Will The European Union’S New Anti-Coercion Instrument Work With China?, Henry S. Gao Apr 2022

Will The European Union’S New Anti-Coercion Instrument Work With China?, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Recent years have witnessed the growing use of trade measures as geopolitical weapons. In response, the European Union is introducing a new instrument.


Whither Privacy Protection In The Law Of Nuisance, Cheng Lim Saw, Aaron Yoong Apr 2022

Whither Privacy Protection In The Law Of Nuisance, Cheng Lim Saw, Aaron Yoong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Privacy-related concerns often feature in disputes involving the tort of private nuisance. Despite the growing importance ascribed to the protection of an individual’s privacy in the modern world, English law has tended to shy away from allowing such concerns to influence the thinking behind the more traditional areas of law (like nuisance). This article examines and questions the various notions that underpin this English approach. Using the recent decisions of Giles Duncan Fearn v The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2019] EWHC 246 (Ch) and Giles Fearn v The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery [2020] EWCA …


Regional Mapping: Digital Provisions Play A Key Role In Asia Pacific Agreements, Henry S. Gao Apr 2022

Regional Mapping: Digital Provisions Play A Key Role In Asia Pacific Agreements, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

IT HAS become more commonplace for trade agreements in the Asia Pacific to include a variety of digital trade provisions. To understand the salient features of these agreements, it is helpful to map out their main baseline features. Doing so also indicates where digital trade agreements may be going or need to go. This mapping covers all free trade agreements (FTAs) with chapters on e-commerce or digital trade since 2000 by the main players in the region-China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia.


The Torrens System In Singapore: 75 Years From Conception To Commencement, Alvin W. L. See Apr 2022

The Torrens System In Singapore: 75 Years From Conception To Commencement, Alvin W. L. See

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article tells the story of how the Torrens system of land titles registration came to be adopted in Singapore. From conception to commencement, the entire process took over 75 years, far longer than any other law reform the country has experienced. Particular attention is paid to why the Australian model was preferred despite the significant influence of English law in colonial Singapore. Although as with anything, much of what happened could be attributed to chance, a great deal can be learned from this story, which details the socio-economic and political forces that have shaped the law into what it …


Trust In Robotics: A Multi-Staged Decision-Making Approach To Robots In Community, Wenxi Zhang, Willow Wong, Mark Findlay Mar 2022

Trust In Robotics: A Multi-Staged Decision-Making Approach To Robots In Community, Wenxi Zhang, Willow Wong, Mark Findlay

Centre for AI & Data Governance

Pivoting on the desired outcome of social good within the wider robotics ecosystem, trust is identified as the central adhesive of the HRI interface. However, building trust between humans and robots involves more than improving the machine’s technical reliability or trustworthiness in function. This paper presents a holistic, community-based approach to trust-building, where trust is understood as a multifaceted and multi-staged looped relation that depends heavily on context and human perceptions. Building on past literature that identifies dispositional and learned stages of trust, our proposed Decision to Trust model considers more extensively the human and situational factors influencing how trust …


Reflection On Wise Cities And Ai In Community: Sustainable Life Spaces And Kampung Storytelling, Mark Findlay, Li Min Ong Mar 2022

Reflection On Wise Cities And Ai In Community: Sustainable Life Spaces And Kampung Storytelling, Mark Findlay, Li Min Ong

Centre for Commercial Law in Asia

This short paper is a reflection following our presentation made at the ASEAN Law Research Network’s conference on Sustainable Development and Commerce in ASEAN Cities. We had wanted to introduce our thinking, given the strong interest in developing smart cities in the region. We want to emphasise the importance of multidisciplinary approaches in the sustainable development of cities, particularly the voice of social scientists which tends to get left out in discussions over technology. In the race towards “smart” urbanisation, there is a real risk that history and culture – things that give a city “life” – could get decimated …


The Eu-China Comprehensive Agreement On Investment: Between Strategic Opportunity And Strategic Autonomy, Henry S. Gao Mar 2022

The Eu-China Comprehensive Agreement On Investment: Between Strategic Opportunity And Strategic Autonomy, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article provides a critical analysis of the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), which was concluded in principle by the EU and China on 30 December 2020. It was hailed as “the most ambitious agreement that China has ever concluded with a third country” by the EU, and a “high-level” agreement that matches “international high-level economic and trade rules” by China. Upon a closer examination, however, such rhetoric does not appear to be warranted as the Agreement failed to add much in terms of substance. What, then, explains the rationale between the Agreement? This article argues that the key …


Revisiting Remedies And The Legality-Merits Distinction In Singapore Administrative Law: Cbb V Law Society Of Singapore [2021] Sgca 6, Kenny Chng, Wen Qi Andrea Soon Mar 2022

Revisiting Remedies And The Legality-Merits Distinction In Singapore Administrative Law: Cbb V Law Society Of Singapore [2021] Sgca 6, Kenny Chng, Wen Qi Andrea Soon

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

It is a general principle of administrative law that the courts will not compel a decision-maker to perform a public duty in a particular manner by way of a mandatory order. Notably, in CBB v Law Society of Singapore [2021] SGCA 6, the Singapore Court of Appeal accepted that an exception could be made to this general principle where there was only one reasonable way to perform the public duty in question. Beyond the decision’s obvious ramifications for the law relating to public law remedies in Singapore, this note argues that the Court of Appeal’s reasoning bears significant implications for …


Toward An Environmentally Sustainable City In The Light Of Industrial Revolution 4.0: A Case Study Of Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Viet Dung Mar 2022

Toward An Environmentally Sustainable City In The Light Of Industrial Revolution 4.0: A Case Study Of Ho Chi Minh City, Tran Viet Dung

Centre for Commercial Law in Asia

Like other large cities in ASEAN, Vietnamese cities have been facing serious urban environment problems such as air pollution, land degradation, weak water drainage and lack of green spaces. These problems are caused by unsustainable patterns of development. City governments have failed to coordinate and integrate city planning consistently. Trends show that governments prefer to take short-term economic profit rather than focus on environmental protection.


Legal Challenges And Opportunities For Peer-To-Peer Electricity Trading In Thailand, Piti Eiamchamroonlarp Mar 2022

Legal Challenges And Opportunities For Peer-To-Peer Electricity Trading In Thailand, Piti Eiamchamroonlarp

Centre for Commercial Law in Asia

Electricity is a critical resource for a country as it powers devices and enables modern living with digital transactions, crypto mining, deployment of electric vehicles (EV) etc. Given these emerging activities, electricity demand is forecasted to keep rising. The peak electricity load in Thailand for 2018, 29,969 MW, will likely increase to 53,997 MW by 2037. However, Thailand, as a party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, must consider negative impacts on the environment from electricity generation. To meet these challenges, renewable resources are needed for cleaner electricity generation and ensuring security of electricity supply, while simultaneously …


Indonesia's Termination Of Bilateral Investment Treaties, Lucas Jun Hao Wong Mar 2022

Indonesia's Termination Of Bilateral Investment Treaties, Lucas Jun Hao Wong

Centre for Commercial Law in Asia

Indonesia holds a vast source of untapped potential in terms of its ability to influence global trade. While Indonesia has been a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) since 1 January 1995, its integration into global value chains remains relatively weak, with the ratio of its trade in goods and services to GDP falling from 48.6% in 2013 to below 40% in 2019. Nonetheless, as Southeast Asia’s largest economy and a member of the G20, Indonesia possesses the capacity to become a key player on the world stage.


Online Falsehoods, Constitutional Free Speech And Its Limits: The Online Citizen V The Attorney-General, Gary K. Y. Chan Mar 2022

Online Falsehoods, Constitutional Free Speech And Its Limits: The Online Citizen V The Attorney-General, Gary K. Y. Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Court of Appeal has for the first time in The Online Citizen v The Attorney-General (8 October 2021) adjudicated on the constitutionality of correction directions issued by Ministers against allegedly false statements of fact under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act 2019. An overarching framework was utilised to assess whether the Ministerial directions restrict free speech under Article 14(1)(a) of the Constitution; if so, whether the restrictions are justifiable under the Constitution and whether there is a rational nexus between the statutory aims and enumerated exceptions. This case comment also examines the constitutional stance towards subject …


No Need For Asia To Be Woke - Responsible Capitalism Through An Asian Lens, Dan W. Puchniak Mar 2022

No Need For Asia To Be Woke - Responsible Capitalism Through An Asian Lens, Dan W. Puchniak

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

LARRY Fink's 2018 proclamation that every company must show "how it makes a positive contribution to society" ostensibly woke American CEOs to the need for companies to fulfil a societal purpose beyond profit maximisation. The American Business Roundtable's 2019 commitment that a business should no longer be run purely for profit is cited as another woke moment for American CEOs to the new reality that corporate purpose matters. However, just as the sun rises first in Asia, there is no need for Asia's CEOs to be woke to the reality that corporate purpose matters.


Mapping Sustainable Development In Investment Treaties: An Analysis Of Asean States' Practice, Mark Mclaughlin Mar 2022

Mapping Sustainable Development In Investment Treaties: An Analysis Of Asean States' Practice, Mark Mclaughlin

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The interaction between sustainable development and international investment treaties is of growing concern. Could investment protection stymie health regulation? Will States be sued for introducing measures to tackle climate change? A growing body of sustainability-related case law is evidence that arbitral tribunals balance investment obligations against States’ ability to regulate for national security, health, the environment, labour rights, transparency, and corporate social responsibility. Against this background, this paper maps sustainable development issues in 371 bilateral investment treaties (hereinafter “BITs”) concluded by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) States. It finds that only 26% of these treaties make any reference …


The Roadmap To The Asean-Eu Fta In The Post-Pandemic Era, Pasha L. Hsieh Mar 2022

The Roadmap To The Asean-Eu Fta In The Post-Pandemic Era, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Relations between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU) have enriched the multifaceted concept of interregionalism from legal and international relations perspectives. The article argues that the transformative ASEAN-EU frameworks have shaped the Third Interregionalism. Brussels' building-block approach envisions pathfinder agreements with individual ASEAN states as the basis for the ASEAN-EU FTA, which will help realize the EU's Indo-Paafic strategy and the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership. The designs of the EU's trade and investment agreements with Singapore and Vietnam are therefore critical. The article assesses core areas such as tariff liberalization and ASEAN cumulative rules of …


Singapore’S Adult Guardianship Law And The Role Of The Family In Medical Decision-Making, Hang Wu Tang Feb 2022

Singapore’S Adult Guardianship Law And The Role Of The Family In Medical Decision-Making, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore’s adult guardianship law was derived from the Mental Capacity Act in England and Wales. This article explores the process of how Singapore’s Mental Capacity Act was adapted and fine-tuned to operate in a jurisdiction with different cultural conditions, religions, familial norms, and social institutions. The first part of the article demonstrates that despite its apparent similarities, the policymakers in Singapore have omitted crucial portions of the Mental Capacity Act which deal with the human rights of persons lacking capacity. This omission is unsurprising considering Singapore’s history of advancing an Asian values approach to human rights. In the second part, …


Promising Trail Or Perilous Trap? Engaging China In The Wto And Beyond, Henry S. Gao Feb 2022

Promising Trail Or Perilous Trap? Engaging China In The Wto And Beyond, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

How to deal with China? This is the biggest question confronting U.S. trade policy - or even the United States' entire foreign policy - today. Over the past few years, the debate on this important issue has benefited from the contributions of many trade law scholars, including those by Mark Wu, Jennifer Hillman, Petros Mavroidis, André Sapir, Rob Howse, Weihuan Zhou, and the present author. In Governing the Interface of U.S.-China Trade Relations, Gregory Shaffer offers refreshing insights. Building on the framework developed by the U.S.-China Trade Policy Working Group, of which he is a member, Shaffer further adjusts the …


Institutional Investors In China: Corporate Governance And Policy Channeling In The Market Within The State, Lin Lin, Dan W. Puchniak Feb 2022

Institutional Investors In China: Corporate Governance And Policy Channeling In The Market Within The State, Lin Lin, Dan W. Puchniak

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The extraordinary rise of China’s economy has made understanding Chinese corporate governance an issue of global importance. A rich literature has developed analyzing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) role as China’s largest controlling shareholder and the impact that this has on Chinese corporate governance. However, the CCP’s role as the architect – and direct and indirect controller – of institutional investors in China has been largely overlooked in the comparative corporate law literature.This Article aims to take the first step in filling this gap in the literature by drawing on Chinese sources and fresh hand-collected empirical, interview, and case study …


China's Regulatory Crackdowns And U.S.-China Trade And Investment Relations, Henry S. Gao Feb 2022

China's Regulatory Crackdowns And U.S.-China Trade And Investment Relations, Henry S. Gao

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

China's regulatory crackdowns have affected U.S. and Chinese companies, but protectionist trade policies implemented by the Trump administration and continued by the Biden administration have severely restricted the ability of the U.S. government to protect U.S. businesses in the Chinese market. Unless the U.S. government changes course, American companies will be increasingly less able to address perceived wrongs in Chinese government policies and will be placed at a significant economic disadvantage in much of Asia.


Reforming Singapore’S Law On Division Of Matrimonial Assets, Jia En Teo Jan 2022

Reforming Singapore’S Law On Division Of Matrimonial Assets, Jia En Teo

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

Section 46(1) of the Women’s Charter undergirds the sacrosanct institution that is marriage – it lays out its moral basis and expresses society’s hopes and expectations of the ideal marital relationship: marriage is an equal cooperative partnership of different efforts for mutual benefit. It is thus no surprise that even when a marriage is terminated, the division of matrimonial assets is also founded upon this prevailing ideology. However, as opposed to equal division, Singapore law dictates a “just and equitable” division of matrimonial assets, where wide discretion and power is vested in the judiciary. This legal rule has been criticised …


The Problems With Trade Secret Protection/Overprotection In Asia, Kung-Chung Liu Jan 2022

The Problems With Trade Secret Protection/Overprotection In Asia, Kung-Chung Liu

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Trade secret protection law has been an important complement to patent law and has gained increasing importance over the last three decades, not least in Asia. Major Asian countries are now at a crossroads, as some (Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and China) are following the US approach to criminalizing trade secret infringement and imposing harsher penalties on economic espionage (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and China). This paper identifies many of the problems associated with trade secret protection, provides indicators of the overprotection of trade secrets, and warns against its many side effects. It then points out the crossroads that Asian economies …


The 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene Jan 2022

The 2022 Global Philanthropy Environment Index Singapore, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The three indicator questions in this section pertain to the laws and regulations governing philanthropic organizations (POs). The scoring questions for this category cover three aspects of regulations: (A) formation and registration; (B) operations; and (C) dissolution.


A Guide To The Rule Of Law, Smu Apolitical Jan 2022

A Guide To The Rule Of Law, Smu Apolitical

Student Publications

A Guide to the Rule of Law presents a compilation of case studies of different countries by a group of contributing writers in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. Designed for readers of all ages and from all walks of life, this primer is the second of a series of primers focusing on an international scope for readers to acquire knowledge to better understand issues which concerns us all, esp


Retirement From Trusteeship – Express And Statutory Powers: Supreme Court Case Summary: Chan Yun Cheong (Trustee Of The Will Of The Testator) V Chan Chi Cheong (Trustee Of The Will Of The Testator, Noemi En-Hui Sarah Chaw Jan 2022

Retirement From Trusteeship – Express And Statutory Powers: Supreme Court Case Summary: Chan Yun Cheong (Trustee Of The Will Of The Testator) V Chan Chi Cheong (Trustee Of The Will Of The Testator, Noemi En-Hui Sarah Chaw

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

This case involved two trustees of a testamentary trust,1 both of whom alleged that they had resigned as trustees. Trusteeship is a serious appointment that comes with responsibilities. Under the Trustees Act (Cap 337, 2005 Rev Ed) (“Trustees Act”), which governs trusts in Singapore, once a person takes up a trusteeship, he cannot simply relinquish his duties at will but must do so in accordance with the law and the terms of the trust instrument.


Through The Rocky Road – Divergent Opinions On “No Oral Modification” Clauses: Charles Lim Teng Siang V Hong Choon Hau [2021] 2 Slr 153, Wei Xuan Joel Fun Jan 2022

Through The Rocky Road – Divergent Opinions On “No Oral Modification” Clauses: Charles Lim Teng Siang V Hong Choon Hau [2021] 2 Slr 153, Wei Xuan Joel Fun

Singapore Law Journal (Lexicon)

A no oral modification (“NOM”) clause refers to a contractual clause which seeks to exclude any modification of terms of a particular agreement unless such modifications are made in written form. However, if a party can prove that there has been an oral variation of such an agreement, can the counterparty rely on this clause to invalidate the variation?


Charitable Organizations In Singapore: From Clan Based To State Facilitated Endeavors, Hang Wu Tang Jan 2022

Charitable Organizations In Singapore: From Clan Based To State Facilitated Endeavors, Hang Wu Tang

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore, with a five million population, has a vibrant charitable sector with over 2000 registered charities attracting approximately USD$2.18 billion in annual donations. How did Singapore’s charitable sector achieve its current level when it has been, in the past, segregated along mainly religious, race and clan-based communities? This paper explores this question by piecing together the current ecosystem, regulatory and tax infrastructure which facilitates the charitable sector in Singapore. Central to the development of the charitable sector has been the Singapore government’s role of being a gatekeeper, regulator and enabler of charities. In analysing the government’s role in the charitable …


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 …


No Oral Modification Clauses: Autonomy, Certainty Or Presumption?, Kwan Ho Lau Jan 2022

No Oral Modification Clauses: Autonomy, Certainty Or Presumption?, Kwan Ho Lau

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

By a judgment of Lord Sumption with which a majority of the court agreed, the Supreme Court in MWB Business Exchange Centres Ltd. v Rock Advertising Ltd. [2018] UKSC 24, [2019] A.C. 119 ruled that a contractual term which prescribed that the contract was not amendable save in writing signed by or on behalf of the parties (a No Oral Modification or “NOM” clause) was effective to invalidate subsequent oral variations to the contract. Lord Burrows later suggested extrajudicially (in P.S. Davies and M. Raczynska (eds.), Contents of Commercial Contracts (London 2020), 49) that Rock Advertising might not find traction …