Reading Time: 6 minutesWhen I reached out to Janna over email to request an interview, Janna suggested that we meet here, at The Malayan Council on Winstedt Road. When our meeting finally rolls around, I dig into a decadent slice of ondeh-ondeh cake, and start Janna off with the all-time favourite question of law school admissions panels everywhere: […]
Know Your Lawyer: Joshua Tan, Partner at Aquinas Law Alliance, Believes That Law Is A Business
Reading Time: 6 minutesLaw is a business. This is one of the first things Joshua shares with me, just three minutes into our interview. Two or three decades earlier, this matter-of-fact utterance would have raised eyebrows and blood pressures, and sent senior lawyers within earshot spewing diatribes in defence of the sanctity of the legal profession. But to […]
How Do I Represent Myself In A Criminal Case—And Should I Do It?
Reading Time: 9 minutesImagine that you’ve found yourself in a sticky situation: you’ve been arrested for a crime. Shoplifting, arson—maybe even vandalism. As you’re sitting in the interrogation room, one thought flashes across your mind: you need to get a lawyer. But it’s possible that you might also have considered a very radical alternative—DIY justice. Maybe you’ve just […]
Why The Language of the Law Is So Convoluted: It’s A Feature, Not A Bug
Reading Time: 7 minutesDense, convoluted and utterly impenetrable to the layperson. One need only cast one’s eyes upon the Penal Code’s six-line, 102-word definition of ‘cheating’ to understand why this is the common perception of most legal documents. It seems intuitive that having laws isn’t very helpful if the only way you can understand them is by taking […]
Know Your Lawyer: Why Sarah-Mae Thomas, Managing Director of Sarah-Mae Thomas LLC, Is Singapore’s Elle Woods
Reading Time: 10 minutesJust three weeks before Part A of the Singapore Bar exams, Sarah-Mae received a note from the Ministry of Law. Her application to be exempted from taking the exams had been rejected. To move back to Singapore to be with her family, Sarah-Mae had written essays, submitted letters of recommendation and sent in her CV […]
From Jan 2023, GST To Be Imposed On All Imported Goods Purchased Online
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn 16 February 2021, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat announced that from 1 Jan 2023, GST will be levied on “imported low-value goods and business-to-consumer (B2C) imported non-digital services”. The announcement means that from Jan 2023, all goods imported via air or post will be subject to GST. This would […]
Know Your Lawyer: Thangavelu, Consultant At Trident Law Corporation, Turns Confusion Into Clarity
Reading Time: 6 minutesWhen one of his former clients was about to be executed, Thangavelu did not hesitate to open his home to the man’s parents. The former client was a foreigner who had been charged with drug trafficking in Singapore. His parents, who had flown in to visit their son for the last time, did not know […]
What Kind Of Businesses Can I Legally Run From My Home Address?
Reading Time: 3 minutesAccording to Lianhe Wanbao and Mothership, a 75-year-old woman was arrested on February 4 for operating a mahjong parlour in her HDB flat. 10 other women aged between 22 and 88 were also arrested. The accused has allegedly operated the mahjong parlour out of her Teban Gardens flat in Jurong for the past eight years. […]
6 Things You Should Know About The Internal Security Act
Reading Time: 4 minutesRecently, a 16-year-old Singaporean made headlines for being the youngest person to be dealt with under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for terrorism-related activities. The boy, a Protestant Christian of Indian ethnicity, became self-radicalised after watching live-streamed videos of the Christchurch mosque attacks and reading the manifesto of the Christchurch attacker. The ISA is undoubtedly […]
Dubai Creates ‘Space Court’ For Off-Planet Disputes
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn Feb 1, Dubai announced that it was creating a ‘space court’ to settle commercial disputes in outer space. The tribunal will be based at the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts. Dubai’s creation of a ‘space court’ comes at a time when space is increasingly becoming a commercial issue involving more and more private companies. […]
From Bill to Law: Singapore’s Legislative Process
Reading Time: 2 minutesOn Monday (1 February 2021), the Electronic Transactions (Amendment) Bill was tabled for a second reading in Parliament. The Bill aims to amend the Electronic Transactions Act to be more aligned to the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on 13 July 2017. […]
ICYMI: Singaporean Woman Used Ex-Boss’ Credit Card Details to Order S$2,285 Worth of Food Via Foodpanda.
Reading Time: 2 minutesWhat happened? The 41-year-old Singaporean woman named Lin Qian Dai Lin had been working at stationery manufacturer Nippecraft. As part of her job scope, she would often make travel bookings and order food on the Foodpanda app for her boss. Because of this, Lin stored her boss’ credit card details on the Foodpanda app on […]