VOL. 07 ISSUE 02 JUL - DEC 2008 ISSN: 0219-6441 LawLinkThe Alumni Magazine of the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law Interview with Lord Leonard Hoffmann Obligations IV Conference 5th ASLI Conference Commencement 2008 Cover Story Law Minister K Shanmugam SC ’84 A word from the Editor CONTENTS Going “Glocal” Dean’s Message 1 - From Local Roots to Global Growth Retirement of the Chief Justice of the ome key appointments in the Singapore Legal Sector were made this year. Mr Federal Court of Malaysia 2 K. Shanmugam SC ’84, previously in legal practice and a longtime Member of SParliament, was propelled to his new appointment as the Minister for Law on 1 May. Professor Walter Woon ’81, previously the Solicitor-General, etched up a notch to Law School Highlights: his appointment as the Attorney-General on 11 April. Mrs Koh Juat Jong ’88, previously Donors’ List 2 the Registrar of the Supreme Court, was appointed as the new Solicitor-General also on 11 April. Together with the Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong ’61, the top posts are New Advisory Board Member 2 now filled with our home-grown NUS Law School alumni. This is something to be 5th Professorial Lecture proud of. by Professor Leong Wai Kum 3 We are featuring Minister Shanmugam in our cover story. He was gracious enough, 5th ASLI Conference 4 due to his longstanding association with the Faculty as an Advisory Board member, to Obligations IV Conference 5 squeeze in the time to chat with us, whilst addressing the issues of the day, such as the step-by-step implementation of the Report of the Committee to Develop the Singapore Alumni Reunion in Shanghai 8 Legal Sector (the VK Rajah Report). We also had the rare opportunity to interview Lord WTO Diploma Ceremony and Leonard Hoffmann, Second Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, House of Lords, in a Closing Dinner 9 relaxed and candid mood during the Obligations IV Conference (page 6). Student Exchange Programme - India 10 Overseas Internship Programme Overseas Internship - Shanghai 11 During the last academic year, the Law Dean initiated the development of an “Overseas Internship Programme”. The objective of the Overseas Internship Programme is to open NUS and NYU Dual Law Degree Programmes 12 up opportunities for our law students to experience first-hand working in a foreign environment and legal system, and the unique chance to gain insight into how top law Collegiate Dinner 13 firms, international companies or other organisations work. Oxford Moots / International Mooting We had a modest start in the summer of 2008 and aim to expand the Internship Competitions 21 Programme for next Summer 2009. The vacation period is from mid-May to end-July Symposium on Emergency Powers in Asia 22 (12 weeks). If you are able to consider offering the Faculty one or some internship positions, or can help to introduce us to the appropriate party within your organisation to speak with, would you please drop an email to us at: [email protected] or aLAWmnus Feature telephone Joyce/Celestine of Alumni Relations at: (65) 6516-7373 / 6516-3616. We Cover Story would be so pleased and grateful to hear from you. Please rest assured that we will Interview with Mr K. Shanmugam work with your law firm, company or organisation to pan out an internship according SC ’84, Minister for Law 14 to your preferences. I believe that some international exposure will be good for our law students, as I too Guest Feature benefited from a working stint at a law firm in London after doing my LLM at Kings Interview with Lord Leonard College. Indeed, two of our writers submitted their pieces while they were on overseas Hubert Hoffmann 6 internship. Sangeetha Yogendran ’09, who wrote the Faculty Features (page 26), spent her summer at InterPol in France. Lynette Chua ’10, who wrote about her overseas internship experience (page 11), spent her year at KhattarWong in Shanghai. The co- Young Alumni interviewer of the cover story Lavanesan Swaminathan ’09 has just left for a year in New Class of 2008 Commencement 18 York City. He is one of the pioneer batch of seven NUS law students attending the NUS-NYU LLB/LLM Dual Degree Programme. NYU@NUS Students Sharing 20 It leaves me now to thank the team of writers and contributors of this issue and Celestine Chan for her administrative support Faculty Update and photography. I would also like to thank Associate Dean Visiting Professors 23 Goh Mia Yang ’92 and Vice Dean Associate Professor Alan Tan ’93 for their guidance and advice, and our legal managers team who helped to arrange for submission of the various articles. Faculty Features Happy reading! Assistant Professor Cheah Wuiling ’03 26 Teaching Assistant Jaclyn Neo ’03 27 Joyce Khoo-Phua ’85 Editor ClassAction 28 Associate Director Reunion in Kuala Lumpur in 2009 27 Alumni Relations and Development News from Office of Alumni Relations LawLink - NUS Faculty of Law President’s Dialogue Lunch 26 469G Bukit Timah Road Eu Tong Sen Building Singapore 259776. with Law Alumni website : www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni Class Ambassadors Initiative 27 We want to hear from you, please contact us at: email : [email protected] • tel : (65) 6516 3616 • fax : (65) 6779 0979 Update your personal particulars at: www.law.nus.edu.sg/alumni/update_particulars.asp Photography by Celestine Chan • Design & Production by Brownsea Services (S) Pte Ltd [ Dean’s Message ] ny great academic institution pushes the boundaries Cambridge); and Joseph Weiler (joint appointment with of human understanding and the law school has NYU). been no exception. Aside from our very successful A On the student admissions front, the law school continues continuing legal education programme of lectures and to do outstandingly. As with previous years, we face stiff seminars, often in collaboration with the Singapore Academy competition for LLB students from other Commonwealth law of Law, we have also organised two important international schools, as well as the many public and private organisations conferences and one symposium. The symposium, organised that award scholarships for overseas study. For this reason by Vice-Dean Victor Ramraj and we spend a great deal of effort on Arun Thiruvengadam, focused road shows to Junior Colleges, on Emergency Powers in Asia: As we begin a new Open Houses, and branding and Exploring the Limits on Legality. academic year I am pleased marketing initiatives. These are It brought together an inter- helpful but there is ultimately disciplinary group of scholars from to say that the previous no substitute for a rigorous and around the world and the papers academic year has been a innovative academic programme. will be published as a collection In the last few years the law school of essays by Cambridge University very successful one. has been very innovative and our Press. The first of the two LLB programme is probably one conferences was the 5th Annual of the most exciting in the world. Our students continue to be Asian Law Institute Conference which saw around 200 papers exposed to a rigorous curriculum that will prepare them well being presented on a wide variety of issues relevant to Asia. for legal practice but in addition to this, many will have the The second was the Obligations IV Conference on The Goals opportunity to pursue a double degree in another discipline, of Private Law which was co-organised with the Singapore a double law degree, an exchange programme, or a minor in Academy of Law and the University of Melbourne under the another discipline. Combinations of these are possible so that lead of Tang Hang Wu ’95 of NUS and Andrew Robertson a double degree student may also spend a semester overseas of Melbourne. I understand that a number of the papers will on exchange. These efforts appear to be paying dividends be collected and published by Hart Publishing. Obligations V as our admissions statistics continue to remain very strong will move to Oxford next and at least two faculty members in despite increased competition. Oxford have written to me to say that Obligations IV has set a very high standard for Oxford to emulate in terms At the graduate level we have also seen a record of organisation and intellectual content. number of applications for our LLM and PhD programmes. The new academic year will Every law school is ultimately as good as its academic therefore see a record intake of around 160 faculty. On this note I am happy to say that we have graduate students coming from more than 20 had a great deal of success on the hiring front. New countries. The growth of the graduate programme young faculty members who have joined us are Cheah attests to the high academic reputation the law Wuiling ’03 who has worked at Interpol and taught at school enjoys internationally. Since 2001 the the University of Lyon, and who has just completed programme has grown more than 600% and much her LLM at Harvard; Lynette Chua ’03 who is credit for this must go to the previous Vice-Deans presently pursuing doctoral studies at for Graduate Studies Dora Neo and Teo Keang UC Berkeley; Goh Yihan ’06 who Sood, and the present Vice-Dean Alan Tan was until recently a Justices’ Law ’93. Clerk at the Supreme Court; Jean Ho ’03 who is currently pursuing We continue to be grateful to the her second LLM at Sorbonne many alumni who have supported after her first from NYU; Jaclyn us in our efforts to build a great law Neo ’03 who was at Wong school. Thank you for helping us in Partnership for several years our courses, providing internships for and who has just completed her our students, pushing us to do better, and LLM at Yale; and Dan Puchniak supporting us financially.