organtrading_asialawnetwork
Organ Trading in Singapore – Is it time to lift the ban?

Reading Time: 5 minutesOrgan trading is illegal In 2008,  prominent businessman Tang Wee Sung, then owner of the CK Tang departmental store was jailed for a day and fined $17,000 for trying to purchase a kidney. Organ trading is illegal in Singapore and banned by the Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA). Despite various amendments to the law, organ […]

elderlyabuse_asialawnetwork
What constitutes elderly abuse?

Reading Time: 4 minutesElderly abuse is an issue that has been discussed in the public sphere recently, with the Vulnerable Adults Bill being passed in Parliament in May this year, and scheduled to come into force by the end of the year. Elderly abuse refers to the situation where caretakers of elderly people (often a family member) abuse […]

esports_asialawnetwork
Top 5 Contract Tips for An Esports Player

Reading Time: 4 minutesSo, you are considering upping your game in Esports and joining a team.  Short of having your own lawyer, what are some of the top five things for you to consider from a legal perspective? In this first of a two part series, video games and entertainment lawyer Adrian Kwong shares his views of some […]

What does it mean to plead guilty in Singapore?

Reading Time: 6 minutesIf you are found to have committed a crime, you will receive a court summons requiring you to appear in court. When an accused person chooses to plead guilty, it basically means that he or she does not intend to contest the proceeded charges against him or her. If the accused is a body corporate, […]

lgbtq_asia_law_network
Repealing Section 377A

Reading Time: 3 minutesWhat constitutional challenge does Section 377A of the Penal Code face? In Singapore the recent proposal to reform the Penal Code has once again left s 377A untouched. However, elsewhere the equivalent section has been invalidated. In a recent decision, the Supreme Court of India struck down a provision similar to s 377A, generating widespread […]

Time for Hong Kong to revisit the meaning of “dishonesty”

Reading Time: 5 minutesBackground “Dishonesty” is an element to be established by the prosecution in a number of criminal offences, including theft and conspiracy to defraud. R v Ghosh [1982] QB 1053 had been a landmark case formulating the two-stage test on “dishonesty” as a direction to jury (the “Ghosh directions”), which comprised of:  Whether the defendant’s conduct was dishonest […]

police arrest_singapore_asia law network
What should you know if you are arrested in Singapore?

Reading Time: 6 minutesThe police possess vast powers in Singapore – the most impactful which would be the power of arrest. Law abiding citizens would not have an encounter with the police that leads to an arrest or usually contemplate such a situation. However, in an unfortunate circumstance encountering the police on the wrong side of the law, […]

fatal car accidents_asia law network
What happens if you cause a fatal traffic accident in Singapore?

Reading Time: 10 minutesIn the first quarter of 2018 alone, 38 people have died in 36 accidents on our country’s roads. You might still remember the harrowing fatal collision between a taxi and an oncoming car which led to the death of a 19-year old female student earlier this year. Traffic accidents are now becoming a weekly occurrence […]

Magistrate’s Complaints in Singapore: A Comprehensive Guide

Reading Time: 7 minutesIntroduction It is not uncommon in any society for disagreements and conflicts to arise, oftentimes leadings to one party feeling as if they have been ‘victimised’ in some way. In Singapore, we are often told that we should make a police report if we believe that we are a victim of an offence, as the […]

a guide to affidavits_asia law network
A Guide to Affidavits

Reading Time: 4 minutesWhat is an affidavit? If you’ve always been curious about this odd-looking, strange-sounding word, you’re probably in good company! After all, the word ‘affidavit’ would hardly be used outside of legal proceedings! To put it simply, an affidavit, or what is sometimes also called a witness statement, is a written statement of the facts in […]

bail_Asia Law Network-ALSA
Guide to Bail in Singapore

Reading Time: 8 minutesIntroduction We have all seen TV shows like Suits and How to Get Away with Murder, where bail is mentioned by lawyers and policemen when an individual gets arrested. What we know from these shows is that bail is an amount of money someone pays for an individual to be released from prison. However, this […]

Do you have a right to silence in Singapore?

Reading Time: 9 minutes“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” These are the famous opening sentences of the Miranda warning, a list of rights read out to a person in the United States of America (USA) upon their arrest. This is a derivative […]