Singapore, 9 January 2010 – The decisions on 5,500 local high court cases covering a period of 44 years from Singapore’s independence in 1965 to 2009 have been published in a set of law reports by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Singapore Law Reports (Reissue) (“SLR(R)”) comprising 78 volumes of reported cases, was launched by Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong at the opening of the new legal year today.  Each SLR(R) set also comes with six volumes of finding aids to expedite research into the cases and various points of law.

Under the common law system, which is the legal system in Singapore, lawyers and judges refer to previous cases as precedents. Easy access to these court decisions is therefore of prime importance. SLR(R) is endorsed as the official law reports in Singapore by the Council of Judges. The Supreme Court has also recently issued a practice direction that lawyers who wish to cite a local judgment in their arguments in court should refer to the SLR(R) in preference to other editions of law reports.

The first series of Singapore law reports were published in 1946 by a private publisher. The Singapore Academy of Law took over the function of publishing these reports in 1992.  In 2003, a decision was made to review the format and content of the earlier law reports with the aim of producing an improved version.

The result of this review was a mammoth project that took seven years to complete and involved the contributions of over 100 law academics, senior legal officers from the Supreme and Subordinate Courts and the Attorney-General’s Office. 

SLR(R) which covers judgments in the Singapore High Court, Court of Appeal and the Privy Council comes with the following new features:

• New concise headnotes which are the summary of cases and the points of law which were decided by the judge/s;
• Pinpoint citations – paragraph numbers are inserted in the headnotes and judgments for more precise citation of each case. This was an improvement on the earlier law reports where there were no paragraph numbering in the headnotes and judgments;
• Additional cases – more than 50 cases previously not reported in the earlier law reports; and
• Additional noter-ups – a new feature in the form of editorial notes stating the outcome of a case on appeal.
• Luxury limited edition – the new set will be a limited edition with leather-bound covers and premium lightweight-coated paper.

The Singapore Law Reports (Reissue) is available in print as well as on LawNet, an on-line legal database service provided by the Singapore Academy of Law.

Only 100 sets of the SLR(R) have been printed. This limited edition, printed on premium paper and bound in leather is available on sale at a special promotion price until 31 March 2010.  Orders and enquiries can be made online via https://www.sal-e.org.sg or call Tel: +65 6332 4388.

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About Singapore Academy of Law

The Singapore Academy of Law is the umbrella body of the legal community in Singapore and has more than 7,000 members.

The Academy’s activities are driven by three strategic priorities – enhancing legal knowledge, improving efficiency of legal practice through the use of technology and supporting the legal industry. The work in each of these areas is directed towards raising the standards and quality of legal practice and building a strong legal community in Singapore.

Besides its role as the official law reporting agency in Singapore, the Academy’s other functions include providing continuing legal education for its members, legal publications, promoting legal research and scholarship, the reform and development of the law, and alternative dispute resolution.

For more details on the Singapore Academy of Law, visit www.sal.org.sg