Majulah Singapura – The legal profession remembers Singapore’s journey
These legal luminaries are no stranger to trials, in the legal sense; but they have also lived through the trials
10 OLY Moments To Remember
The Opening of Legal Year (OLY) is a ceremony steeped in tradition. And as this list shows, the speeches made there can have a big impact on the everyday practice of law.
BY FOO KIM LENG OLY 1979: First female President of the Law Society Ms Phyllis Tan delivered the first-ever address
Remembering The Pan-Electric Crisis, Nearly 40 Years On
Why this incident marked a turning point in the evolution of our stock market.
Traders at the Singapore Stock Exchange in 1987. Ministry of Information and the Arts Collection, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore
Covid-19: How Singapore’s Legal Profession Responded
The SAL Legal Heritage Committee set out to find out how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted Singapore’s legal community through a
Legal Legacies: Opening of the Legal Year in the past
Road closures, ceremonial parades and judicial wigs—the Opening of Legal Year (OLY) ceremonies in independent Singapore were vastly different from
Legal Legacies: The Story of Singapore Law (Tour from 2008)
The grandeur of the old Supreme Court building remains an enduring icon of Singapore’s legal history. This National Day weekend,
The Toa Payoh Ritual Murders: A Case Of Insanity Or Was It Just A “Wayang”? (Part 2)
The first part of this article took you into the court room where the battle was fought between the defence and prosecution as to whether the murderers were of sound mind. The psychiatric defence failed but could there have been a different outcome?
BY FOO KIM LENG “It was a very hard-fought trial and right to the end, it’s not certain which way
The Toa Payoh Ritual Murders: A Case Of Insanity Or Was It Just A “Wayang”? (Part 1)
Much has been written about one of Singapore’s most sensational crimes which took place 40 years ago. Delving into unpublished oral history accounts collected under SAL’s legal Heritage Programme and the National Archives of Singapore, we revisit the trial which continues to intrigue long after the case was closed.
BY FOO KIM LENG In early 1981, two children were killed in the vicinity of Toa Payoh. Shortly after, police
The Slips Of Paper That Kept A Profession On Track
Analogue methods of legal research hold a certain nostalgia for Ms Umayal Balakrishnan, who has worked as a librarian at Drew & Napier since 1994.
Before the advent of online resources like LawNet, the only way to update changes on statutes and legislation was to
Remembering The Robinsons Fire
(Photo: 1972 Singapore – Robinson’s Department Store fire at Raffles Place the morning after, 22 Nov 1972.) For years, Robinsons was
The Long Road To Lawnet, As Told By Charles Lim
It’s difficult to imagine a law firm operating without a computer today. But up until the 1980s, this ubiquitous technology was not something in every law office let alone on every practitioner’s desk. Mr Charles Lim of the Attorney-General’s Chambers shares how officers like himself helped build the landscape we know today.
Mr Charles Lim (left) and Justice Lee Seiu Kin (in blue tie) at the launch of LawNet in 1990 The
A Class Act: From Chalk To Transparencies
In the second of a two-part series on the history of the law faculty as told through oral history interviews, Professor Tan Sook Yee recalls her time at the university as lecturer and administrator.
Professor Tan Sook Yee grew up in Seremban, Malaysia, studied law in Dublin, Ireland and would spend 45 years of
A Class Act: How Singapore’s First Law Faculty Came To Be
Students across the country have begun the academic year in earnest. SAL marks the occasion with a look at the history of Singapore’s law faculty which took root at the then-University of Malaya. It started in 1959 with barely three academic staff: Dean Professor LA Sheridan, Mr B L Chua and Mr Tan Boon Teik, a magistrate who taught part-time. Mr Tan Boon Teik, who would later become Singapore’s longest serving Attorney-General, continued to teach part-time at the faculty for many years. His wife, Professor Tan Sook Yee, would became the faculty’s 10th Dean in 1980. This two-part series is based on SAL's oral history interviews with former deans Prof Sheridan and Prof Tan Sook Yee. They recount the nascent years of the law faculty and their love of teaching which have nurtured many legal illuminaries who have made their mark in Singapore and overseas.
It wasn’t always a given that a law degree from a Singapore university would be recognised as a qualification for
Veteran Trials
These days, we are constantly reminded of the need for resilience and fortitude in the face of Covid-19. For veteran lawyers Mr TPB Menon and Mr Sat Pal Khattar, it did not take a global pandemic to turn their lives upside down. At an age when most of their peers were focused on their studies, they had to shoulder the added responsibility of being head of their households while grappling with the demands of law school. Their stories, taken from excerpts of their oral history interviews with SAL, are inspirational in these difficult times.
Mr TPB Menon was studying for his HSC (Higher School Certificate, equivalent to today’s A’ levels) when his father was
Hold My Hand Till the End: An Interview with Sister Gerard Fernandez
After the trials have ended and the death sentence passed, what happens to prisoners on death row? In an oral history interview, Sister Gerard Fernandez sheds light on the final days of some of Singapore’s most famous death row inmates.
BY FOO KIM LENGAmazing Grace is one of the most popular hymns around Changi Prison’s death row. It is sung joyfully
A Stately Goodbye: Bidding Farewell to the State Courts Complex
As we bid farewell to the State Courts Complex, we use oral history interviews to piece together its 44-year heritage.…