| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1 November 1988 |
| Headquarters | 1 Supreme Court Lane, Singapore 178879 |
| Agency executives |
|
| Website | sal.org.sg |
The Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) is a promotion and development agency for Singapore's legal industry. SAL also undertakes statutory functions such as stakeholding services and the appointment of Senior Counsel, Commissioners for Oaths and Notaries Public. It also organises the annual TechLaw.Fest with the Ministry of Law (MinLaw) and MP International. The conference is a global gathering of legal and tech professionals and has featured speakers like Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Law Minister K. Shanmugam.
SAL has 3 sub-brands: Singapore Law Watch, Academy Publishing, and LawNet (known as Legal Workbench in Malaysia).
SAL also has 3 subsidiaries: the Singapore Mediation Centre, the SAL Ventures, and the Asian Business Law Institute.
The Singapore Academy of Law Act was created by an Act of Parliament on 1 November 1988, and had its City Hall premises officially opened by former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. With the Singapore Academy of Law (Amendment) Act passed in 1995, SAL's functions were expanded to include development of legal infrastructure and services.
SAL is led by a Senate headed by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, and comprising the Attorney-General, the Supreme Court Bench and key leaders of the various branches of the legal profession. It has more than 12,000 members, including the Bench, all persons who are called as advocates and solicitors of the Supreme Court (i.e. the Bar) or appointed as Legal Service Officers, corporate counsel, faculty members of the three local law schools (i.e. National University of Singapore, Singapore Management University and Singapore University of Social Sciences) and foreign lawyers in Singapore.
SAL's Executive Board oversees major decision making and provides strategic direction for the development of SAL's role in the Singapore legal industry. The Executive Board comprises 12 members from both the judiciary and the private sector.
The scope of SAL's work as a promotion and development agency covers four "Cs":
This work is carried out by 5 clusters:
SAL has designated the Yellow Ribbon Fund as the sole beneficiary of its charity efforts since 2011.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public collegiate and research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University.
The Singapore Management University (SMU) is a publicly-funded private university in Singapore. Founded in 2000, SMU is the third oldest autonomous university in the country, and models its education after the Wharton School. It is also the only university in Singapore with a city campus. The university was also awarded triple accreditation by AACSB, EQUIS and AMBA.
The Presidential Council for Minority Rights (PCMR) is a non-elected government body in Singapore established in 1970, the main function of which is to scrutinize most of the bills passed by Parliament to ensure that they do not discriminate against any racial or religious community. If the Council feels that any provision in a bill amounts to a differentiating measure, it will report its findings to Parliament and refer the bill back to Parliament for reconsideration. The council also examines subsidiary legislation and statutes in force on 9 January 1970. One member of the PCMR is nominated by the chairman to the Presidential Elections Committee, which is empowered to ensure that candidates for the office of President have the qualifications required by the Constitution. The President also appoints and dismisses the chairman and members of the Presidential Council for Religious Harmony ("PCRH"), established by the Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act, on the advice of the PCMR, and the PCMR is responsible for determining whether PCRH members who are not representatives of major religions in Singapore have distinguished themselves in public service or community relations in Singapore.
The Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) is a public autonomous university in Singapore. Established in 2017, SUSS focuses on applied degree programmes primarily in the social sciences. In 2017, SUSS received its inaugural class of 2,137 graduates.
The Supreme Court of Singapore is a set of courts in Singapore, comprising the Court of Appeal and the High Court. It hears both civil and criminal matters. The Court of Appeal hears both civil and criminal appeals from the High Court. The Court of Appeal may also decide a point of law reserved for its decision by the High Court, as well as any point of law of public interest arising in the course of an appeal from a court subordinate to the High Court, which has been reserved by the High Court for decision of the Court of Appeal.
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. 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.
Chan Sek Keong is a Malayan-born Singaporean judge who served as chief justice of Singapore between 2006 and 2012.
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.
The State Courts of Singapore is one of the three categories of courts in Singapore, the other categories being the Supreme Court and Family Justice Courts. The State Courts comprise the District and Magistrate Courts—both of which oversee civil and criminal matters—as well as specialised courts such as the coroner's courts and the Small Claims Tribunals.
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.
Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP is a Singaporean law firm with affiliate offices in Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Founded in 1976, the firm is regarded as one of the Big Four law firms in Singapore. It is a member firm of Rajah & Tann Asia, a network of law firms in Southeast Asia with over 970 fee earners.
Singapore International Mediation Centre (SIMC) is an independent not-for-profit organisation in Singapore providing mediation services, through its panel of international mediators, to parties wishing to resolve their cross-border commercial disputes amicably. The centre is housed at Maxwell Chambers.
Bala Reddy is a veteran Singaporean senior lawyer. He is presently the senior principal district judge and director of the Community Justice and Tribunals division in the State Courts of Singapore. Reddy is an authority in international criminal justice systems and served as a legal expert for the United Nations Development Programme as well as the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Prior to his judicial appointment to the State Courts in 2014, Reddy was the Chief Prosecutor in the Attorney-General's Chambers of Singapore during Justice Steven Chong's tenure as Attorney-General.
The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) was established on 5 January 2015.
The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) is a company based in London, England that organizes seminars and conferences in London and India, and gives out awards. It charges fees for membership, conference sponsorship and advertising. In April 2020 its president, Adish Aggarwala, launched a conspiracy theory in which he claimed the Chinese had deliberately launched the COVID-19 pandemic to further its ambitions to become a superpower. The Indian government disowned any connection with the ICJ and its views, but the story created a sensation in the Indian press.
Quentin Loh Sze-On is a Singaporean judge who sits on the High Court of Singapore and the Supreme Court of Fiji.
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".
Shook Lin & Bok is a law firm with offices in Singapore and Malaysia.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
