Singapore, 26 June 2008 – The legal community here will have a new frequency to tune into for the cutting edge of Singapore law, as it is developed. Starting tomorrow, the Supreme Court will highlight significant High Court and Court of Appeal judgments via the Singapore Law Watch at www.singaporelawwatch.sg (the “SLW”).

Appearing exclusively on the SLW as “Supreme Court Notes”, the highlights will be written by Justice’s Law Clerks of the Supreme Court, extracting from or summarising important decisions that set precedents or that contain restatements or novel points of law. The Supreme Court Notes will provide a snapshot of the legal implications of these decisions for lawyers and other members of the legal community who need to stay updated constantly. The intention is to ensure faster dissemination of such information, and to make it as easy and quick as possible to keep track of key legal developments. The segment of the business community that keeps pulse on legal developments of Singapore law will benefit from this as well.

The SLW is a free, ‘one-stop’ daily legal news service provided by the Singapore Academy of Law to keep the legal community abreast of the latest legal developments on different fronts. Since its launch by an announcement of the Chief Justice at the Opening of the Legal Year on 5 January 2008, it has been updating the legal community with headline legal news, the most recent Supreme Court judgments, legislation, notices, directions and circulars from the courts and MAS and SGX, and commentaries from law firms on the impact of the new developments. Since its launch, the SLW has grown from strength to strength. Page views have grown on an average of 20% each month.

Tomorrow will see the launch of an enhanced version of the SLW, unveiling a revamped and user-friendly design, and multiple content and functional enhancements. Other than new content such as the Supreme Court Notes, various other legal news sources will be added. For example, in addition to headline legal news from the Business Times, Straits Times and Today, selected reports from Lianhe Zaobao will now be included. Law Society notices and practice directions will also be listed. In addition, there will be a listing consolidating information on lawrelated publications, seminars and events from bodies like the Singapore Academy of Law, Law Society of Singapore, National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and Lexis-Nexis Singapore.

All the information on the SLW are available at a glance on the SLW website. They are also available through RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which allows law firms and other organisations to draw and display the information on the SLW onto their intranets. Users can also subscribe to SLW via daily emails update and “Tell a Friend” about any article of particular interest through a referring email. Subscribing for updates by RSS or via the daily email service is free of charge.

-End-

About accessing the SLW
The SLW is accessible free at www.singaporelawwatch.sg. There is no need to register or login. The SLW is updated once daily except on weekends. You can also subscribe to the feeds via email or RSS for display through intranet or individual desktops.

About Singapore Academy of Law
The Singapore Academy of Law (“The Academy”) is the umbrella body of the legal community in Singapore and has more than 7,000 members.

The Academy’s activities are driven by three strategic priorities – enhancing legal knowledge, improving efficiency of legal practice through the use of technology and supporting the legal industry. The work in each of these areas is directed towards
raising the standards and quality of legal practice and building a strong legal community in Singapore.

Besides its role as the official law reporting agency in Singapore, The Academy’s other functions include providing continuing legal education for its members, legal publications, promoting legal research and scholarship, the reform and development of
the law, and alternative dispute resolution.