What is Law?
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. Law regulates the
behaviour of individuals, and well as offers rules and regulations that govern all organisations.
It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways, and serves as the foremost social
mediator in the relationships between all parties in a country. (The word “parties” is generally
a term used in law to describe either a person or an organisation. Therefore, it is not
uncommon to hear of term “parties to a contract” or “parties in a dispute”.)
It is therefore no surprise to anyone that law governs a wide variety of social activities. For
example, contract law regulates all commercial transactions such as buying a bus ticket or a
meal to entering in an employment contract or cell phone contract. All these are legally-binding
contracts. Another example would be property law, which defines rights and obligations
related to the transfer and title of real estate between parties. There is also tort law, which
protects the rights of parties even in the absence of any contract, and which allows a claim for
compensation should a party’s rights be violated by another.
Laws are grouped into “public law” and “private law”. Public law governs the relationship
between individuals and the state. Falling into this category are constitutional law,
administrative law and criminal law. Private law governs the relationships between individuals,
such as the law of contracts and the law of tort.
Commercial law (also known as business law) is the body of law which governs businesses
and commercial transactions. It is often considered to be a branch of civil law and deals both
with issues of private law and public law.
What do we need law?
Laws are very important for human beings to live a dignified and secured lifestyle. Laws
generally provide us a sense of security. A society lives in comfort knowing that there are
laws to keep them safe, that their rights are protected, as well as ensure that legally-binding
contracts are observed by all parties.
Laws also serve as deterrence for those who would commit crimes. For example, murderers,
thieves, and others with no moral code to live by must be deterred from harming others. If
we did not have laws, chaos would prevail.
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The rule of law
The Rule of Law, in its most basic form, is the principle that no one is above the law. Most
legal systems are based on this principle. It provides that governments and individuals can
only act in accordance with publicly-known laws. These laws must be adopted and enforced
in a manner that is consistent with established conventions, traditions and procedures.
It has been said that the Rule of Law cannot exist without a transparent legal system; the
main components being a clear set of laws that are freely and easily accessible to all, strong
enforcement structures, and an independent judiciary to protect citizens against the arbitrary
use of power by the state, individuals or any other organisation.
Categories of law
Law can be divided into civil law and criminal law.
• Civil law
Civil Law deals with legal relationship between private individuals (commercial or
personal injury disputes, for example). Typically, one-person (the plaintiff) will claim
that the other person’s (the defendant) actions caused him/her harm, and file a civil
suit against that person seeking compensation (i.e. damages) for that harm caused.
• Criminal law
Criminal Law is designed to prevent citizens from deliberately harming each other and
involves actions that have been declared illegal by the state (murder, theft, assault,
etc.). In a criminal case, the State (represented by the Public Prosecutor) brings a
defendant (who is accused of having committed an offence) to trial, and a guilty verdict
usually results in imprisonment, a fine, or both.
Sources of Law Before engaging in the discussion on the sources of laws in Singapore, we need to briefly
examine Singapore’s history.
Modern Singapore was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. It immediately served as a
trading post of the British Empire. In 1867, the colonies in Southeast Asia were reorganised
and Singapore came under the direct control of Britain as part of the Straits Settlements.
During World War II, the country was occupied by Japan, but returned to British control as a
separate crown colony following Japan’s defeat and surrender in 1945. Self-governance was
obtained in 1959 and in 1963, Singapore became part of the new federation of Malaysia, which
included Malaya, North Borneo and Sarawak. Singapore was expelled from the federation two
years later (due to ideological differences) and became an independent country.
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As a former British colony, the legal system in Singapore is based on the English common
law. There are (generally) four sources of law in Singapore: the constitution, legislation,
subsidiary legislation and legal decisions made by judges.
• The Constitution
The Constitution enshrines the fundamental rights of the individual. It also comprises
the fundamental principles and basic framework for the three organs of state – the
Executive (which consists of the President, Prime Minister and other ministers
responsible for government affairs and accountable to the Parliament), the Legislature
(which consists of the President and Parliament with its legislative authority
responsible for enacting legislation) and the Judiciary (the various courts of law which
operate independent of the Executive and Legislature).
• Legislation
Legislation or statutory laws are written laws enacted by the Singapore Parliament or
other bodies that had power to pass such laws in the past in Singapore. These are
called statutes.
o Statutes
A statute is a formal written enactment of a country’s parliament. Typically, statutes
command or prohibit something, or declare policy.
A statute of the Singapore Parliament begins its life as a Bill. In order for a Bill to
become law, it must go through three readings and it must be passed by a majority
of votes in Parliament. Even after the Third Reading, a Bill does not become law
until it goes the Presidential Council of Minority Rights to ensure that does not
discriminate against any racial or religious minority. The President must also
assent to the Bill and it must be published in the Gazette.
Some examples of Acts are the Sale of Goods Act (Cap 393, 1999 Rev Ed), the
Companies Act (Cap 50, 2006 Rev Ed), and more recently, the Covid-19
(Temporary Measures) Act 2020.
• Subsidiary Legislation
Subsidiary legislation or delegated legislation refers to written law made by ministers,
government agencies or statutory boards under the authority of a statute (often called
its “Parent Act”) or other lawful authority, and not directly by Parliament.
Delegated legislation frees up members of parliament to deal with broad issues of
policy, leaving it to the experts to fill in the gaps. There are various review and scrutiny
committees attached to parliament to examine delegated legislation to make sure that
it doesn’t go beyond the authority given under the enabling legislation.
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Some examples of subsidiary legislation are Environmental Public Health (Public
Cleansing) Regulations made under the Environmental Public Health Act (Cap. 95,
2002 Rev. Ed.) and Rapid Transit Systems Regulations (Cap. 263A, 1997 Rev. Ed.).
• Judge-made Law (Common Law)
More traditionally called “common law”, judge-made law refers to court judgments
which are considered a source of law. Such a court judgement is called a “judicial
precedent”. Judicial precedents derive their force from the doctrine of stare decisis,
also known as the doctrine of binding precedent. According to this doctrine, the
decisions of higher courts are (generally) binding on lower courts and courts at the
same level when cases come before these courts with similar facts. Thus, judgments
of the Court of Appeal are binding on the High Court, and judgments of both of these
superior courts are binding on State Courts.
According to the doctrine of stare decisis, only the ratio decidendi (that is, the legal
principle that determines the outcome) of a case is binding. Other principles expressed
during proceedings in court, such as the obiter dicta (a judge’s expression of opinion
uttered in court or in a written judgement, but not essential to the decision) are not
binding.
For example, in Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemicals
(1952), where a pharmacy – whose medicines were displayed on shelves – was
accused of offering to sell medicines without a prescription. The court held that goods
placed on shop shelves constituted an invitation to treat, not an offer. An invitation to
treat is where a shop (business) invites customers to make an offer to buy, which may
be accepted or rejected by the shop. Therefore, no offence was committed by the
pharmacy.
This decision, the judicial precedent, was followed in the case of Fisher v Bell (1961)
where the court held that a display of an offensive weapon (flick knife) did not
constitute an offer for sale but was merely an invitation to treat.
Statutory Interpretation
Statutory Interpretation is the process by which judges are called to interpret the Acts of
Parliament (statutes). When interpreting a statute, the judges seek to determine the intention
of parliament, or the reason for parliament passing the law. Sometimes the words of a statute
have a plain and straightforward meaning, which allows for the statute to be interpreted easily.
But in most cases, however, there is some ambiguity; i.e. the statute can be interpreted in
more than one way, or the statute is vague and unclear. Under such a circumstance, the judge
will have to decide on the meaning of the statute or the intention of parliament, and this is
done by applying the facts of relevant cases to the relevant statute. An example of where the
language was unclear can be seen in the case of Twining v Myers (1982), where the court
has to decide whether roller skates amounted to a “vehicle” within the meaning of the relevant
statute.