The legal system of Singapore is based on the English common law system. Major areas of law – particularly administrative law, contract law, equity and trust law, property law and tort law – are largely judge-made, though certain aspects have now been modified to some extent by statutes. However, other areas of law, such as criminal law, company law and family law, are largely statutory in nature.
Walter Woon Cheong Ming is a Singaporean lawyer who served as the fifth attorney-general of Singapore between 2008 and 2010. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, Lee Kong Chian Visiting professor at the Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law, and the dean of the RHT Legal Training Institute.
The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law is Singapore's oldest law school. NUS Law was initially established in 1956 as the Department of Law in the University of Malaya, and subsequently, University of Singapore. After its establishment, NUS Law was Singapore's only law school for half a century, until the subsequent establishment of the SMU School of Law in 2007 and the SUSS School of Law in 2017. NUS Law is currently located at the NUS Bukit Timah Campus. The current dean of NUS Law is Andrew Simester. Internationally, NUS Law has been ranked twelfth by the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2023 and eleventh by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings by Subject in 2024.
Yong Pung How was a Malayan-born Singaporean judge who served as the second chief justice of Singapore between 1990 and 2006.
Tan Lee Meng is an emeritus professor in the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law. He was first appointed as a Judicial Commissioner on 2 February 1997, and then appointed Judge in August 1997, serving until he reached the mandatory retirement age of 65 on 7 July 2013. He also completed two consecutive three-year terms of service as a Senior Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He returned to the NUS after his time in the judiciary, having made "outstanding contributions to the Supreme Court, the Legal Service and the legal profession." At the time of his appointment, Tan was the first ever academic to be appointed to the Supreme Court and his judgments were said to be "instructive, soundly reasoned, and easy to grasp."
A judicial commissioner is person appointed on a non-permanent basis to a judicial office. In some countries, such as Malaysia and Singapore, judicial commissioners have the powers of full judges. In other jurisdictions their powers are limited.
Tan Cheng Han is a Singaporean lawyer and legal academic. Until 2012, he was the dean of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, where he taught contract law and company Law and directed the EW Barker Centre for Law & Business. From 2019 to 2022, he was the dean of the City University of Hong Kong School of Law and the chair professor of commercial law. He was also a consultant at TSMP Law Corporation. In August 2012, he was appointed the inaugural chairman of Singapore's new Media Literacy Council.
The judicial officers of the Republic of Singapore work in the Supreme Court and the State Courts to hear and determine disputes between litigants in civil cases and, in criminal matters, to determine the liability of accused persons and their sentences if they are convicted.
Lock Han Chng Jonathan v. Goh Jessiline was a court case decided in the Court of Appeal of Singapore on 31 December 2007 which concerned the validity of settlements made at the Primary Dispute Resolution Centre (PDRC) of the Subordinate Courts of Singapore.
The Federal Court of Malaysia is the highest court and the final appellate court in Malaysia. It is housed in the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya. The court was established during Malaya's independence in 1957 and received its current name in 1994.
Sundaresh Menon is a Singaporean lawyer and judge who has been serving as Chief Justice of Singapore since 2012.
The Yong Pung How School of Law is one of the six schools of the Singapore Management University. It was set up as Singapore's second law school in 2007, 50 years after the NUS Faculty of Law and 10 years before SUSS School of Law. Prior to its establishment as a law school, the school was a department within the School of Business between 2000 and 2007. The school was known as the SMU School of Law until 2021, when it was renamed after former Chief Justice Yong Pung How.
Joseph Yuvaraj Pillay, also known as J. Y. Pillay, is a Singaporean retired civil servant.
Judith Evelyn Jyothi Prakash is a Singaporean judge in the Supreme Court. Her brother is ambassador Simon Tensing de Cruz. Prakash was appointed a permanent Judge of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Singapore on 1 August 2016, the first woman to hold this post. During her time on the bench, she was also Judge of the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts, where she heard appeal matters.
Goh Yihan is a Judge of the Supreme Court of Singapore. He was previously a Judicial Commissioner, and, before that, the Dean of the Singapore Management University School of Law.
Lionel Astor "Lee" Sheridan is a former educator and academic who served as the first Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Malaya, and its successor universities, in Singapore. He has been considered the "Father of Legal Education in Malaya".
Leslie Chew Kwee HoePBM is a Singaporean legal academic and law professor. He is the founding Dean of the School of Law, Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore's third law school. He also regularly teaches in other institutions including the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators and the NUS Faculty of Law, as well as the Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy. Chew is the founding President of the Asia Pacific Institute of Experts.
Yeo Tiong MinSCPBM (杨忠明) is a Singaporean legal academic. He is the Yong Pung How Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University School of Law and served as its dean from 2012 to 2017. In his time as Dean, Yeo was credited for his role in developing the Singapore Management University School of Law "into a leading law school in Singapore and in Asia." Yeo was succeeded as dean in 2017 by Goh Yihan. At the time he stepped down, Yeo was said to have "been instrumental in developing SOL into a leading law school in Singapore and in Asia". Yeo recently published a new book entitled "Commercial Conflict of Laws".
Mohamed Faizal Mohamed Abdul KadirPPASC is a Judicial Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Singapore.
