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About the project
The Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee examined various issues relating to the common law rules on the choice of law in contract, including the following:
- Difficulties applying the rules limiting the parties’ choice of law.
- Uncertainty as to the extent to which a court can imply a choice of law and when the court should consider what is the law that has the “closest and most real connection” to the contract.
- Difficulties with applying the closest connection test when connections are evenly balanced.
- The common law’s lack of a clear choice of law rule for determining the capacity of natural persons to enter into contracts.
- Controversy over the test for establishing the law that determines whether a contract has been formed.
- Whether the proper law of a contract can be changed after the contract has been made, and related matters.
Despite shortcomings in the existing law, the Committee was, on the whole, not in favour of a substantive overhaul of the law by way of legislative intervention. It took the view that the common law had generally worked well, there was no particular urgency for legislative reform, and that the better approach would be to leave reform to the integrational, incremental and gradual evolution of the common law.
Project status: Completed
- The report was completed on 16 September 2003 and published in May 2004.
- The report was cited in the following works:
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Areas of law
◾ Conflict of laws
◾ Contract law
Click on the image above to view the report
Last updated 10 June 2019
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