 The Singapore Journal
of Legal Studies is pleased to commemorate its
50th anniversary in its current issue. The Journal is
the flagship law journal of the Faculty of Law, National
University of Singapore and one of the oldest law
journals in the Commonwealth. As the first and leading
legal journal in Singapore, it contains a rich store of
legal literature analysing the legal, political and
social development of Singapore in its progression from
a developing to a First World nation. The journal
continues to advance the boundaries of global and local
developments in law, policy and legal practice by
publishing cogent and timely articles, legislation
comments and case notes on a biannual basis.
Highlights of our 50th (July 09) issue are …
Dr Kevin Tan’s commemorative article,
Journey of a Journal:
50 Years of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, traces
the historical development of the journal and the key
personalities who have made it into one of Asia’s most
respected legal publications. He observes the expansion of
the journal’s remit to include materials from ASEAN and
other Asian states, beyond its original mission of
publishing material relating to local law. The constant
review and adaptation has kept the journal’s publications
current and relevant to an ever-growing audience. Dr Tan
concludes that the journal has positioned itself
strategically to take on all corners, by consciously making
itself the English language voice of the common law and of
indigenous law in Southeast-Asia.
In Public Interest in Sentencing: Deterrence or Desert or
Anything Else?, Professor Tan Yock Lin analyses the role of
public interest analysis in sentencing. He debunks the view
that public interest analysis is necessarily utilitarian in
nature, arguing instead that such analysis contributes
clarity and add value to desert-based sentencing and that
taken together with judicial benchmarking, reflects a model
of desert that is neither deontological nor empirical.
Professor Thio Li-ann, in Courting Religion: The Judge
between Caesar and God in Asian Courts, considers the
freedom of religion - an integral component of core human
rights. She examines how apex courts in Singapore and the
Philippines negotiate questions of religious identity and
constitutional permissibility of state restrictions on
religious rights, and the light this sheds on the model of
constitutional secularism adopted.
Fourthly, Professor Razeen Sappideen evaluates the claim of
securities markets efficiency based on the efficient markets
hypothesis (EMH) in The Paradox of Securities Markets
Efficiency: Where to Next? He argues that price movements in
securities markets are the product of idiosyncratic behaviour, falling far short of EMH efficient behaviour, and
proposes the adoption of a new model which accommodates
various types of behaviour.
In The Efficacy of Securities Investors’ Rights in
Singapore, Associate Professor Alexander Loke notes that
despite a steady trickle of enforcement actions taken
against market misconduct by the Singapore regulators, no
security class actions have ever arisen out of these
enforcement actions. The article examines whether the
paucity of securities class actions might be attributable to
the nature of the rights that securities investors possess.
In the sixth article, The Financial Assistance Prohibition:
Changing Legislative and Judicial Landscape, Dr. Maisie Ooi
outlines the recent changes to the law prohibiting financial
assistance in Singapore and considers the treatment of the
same rule in other jurisdictions. She argues that the
treatment of Singapore’s financial assistance prohibition
should largely depend on its relevance as a regulatory tool
in Singapore today.
Professor Kelvin Low analyses the “personal equities
exception” in Singapore, in The
Story of “Personal Equities” in Singapore: Thus Far and
Beyond. He asserts that “personal
equities” claims under Singapore’s Torrens system of land
registration are not exceptions to indefeasibility and
therefore ought not to be limited by section 46(2) of the
Land Titles Act.
Our 50th (July 09) issue also features several legislation
and case notes, and book reviews. Click
here for the
complete content page.
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