Lawyers need to continuously improve to keep up with
global challenges : CJ
SINGAPORE: Singapore lawyers need to continuously improve
themselves to keep up with global challenges. Singapore's Chief
Justice Chan Sek Keong said this at the opening of the Legal Year
2010 held at the Supreme Court on Saturday.
He also touched on measures concerning contempt of court
and the safe keeping of conveyancing monies.
The opening of the new legal year is an opportunity for the Bench
and the Bar to take stock of past achievements and chart goals for
the new year.
In his speech, Chief Justice Chan stressed the point that the
administration of justice is local.
He said: "We must do justice to our people first according to our
own laws and legal processes. We do not claim that the norms and
principles that infuse our laws are a model for other
jurisdictions, only that they are appropriate and necessary to our
own circumstances."
As such, the law of contempt of court will soon be put in statutory
form so that it is clear to everyone.
Law Minister K Shanmugam said: "All our criminal offences are set
out in the Statute books. So it is in back and white, what is the
nature of the offence, what are the ingredients of the offence and
what are the penalties, so everyone can look at the Statute book
and be very clear what are the offences.
"The contempt offences however are the one exception to that
because they are what we call common law offences. It is not set up
in any Statute book.”
“If contempt offences are committed, then the court deals with it
and sentencing is at the discretion of the Judge. It is better if
the contempt provisions are also set out in black and white so that
everyone knows exactly what the offence is and what are the
penalties.
“Criminal law should be transparent, public and accessible and that
is the philosophy.”
Also to be tightened how conveyancing monies are handled.
Chief Justice Chan said the Singapore Academy of Law and the
commercial banks will take part in a pilot scheme to hold the
monies to ensure their complete safety.
Indranee Rajah, Senior Counsel, MP, Tanjong Pagar GRC, said: "The
main purpose is to make sure that there is no abuse of the system
and that's the key. It's really been brought about by the cases of
lawyers who have absconded with client monies and what this ensures
is that the monies that are put there, large sums are not siphoned
off."
Turning to the Bar, Chief Justice Chan noted that it's is in a
healthy state.
3,726 lawyers are holding practising certificates, the highest
number ever in the history of the profession.
Attorney-General Walter Woon, said: "We have been fortunate in the
last year to have been able to recruit excellent young graduates
for the legal service. We have also made offers of appointment to
promising students in their third and final years of study in
universities both in Singapore and abroad.”
Chief Justice Chan stressed that globalisation of trade and
services would result in greater demands for bigger and smarter law
firms to serve the needs of the new economy and specialised
knowledge and litigation skills will always be in demand.
Michael Hwang, president, Law Society of Singapore, said: "When
there are cases that come to Singapore which involve foreign laws
and if our Singapore lawyers want to handle them properly and not
just import a foreign lawyer, then they have to familiar with
foreign legal aspects."
So the Singapore Academy of Law will work with the two law schools
for more courses to cater to lawyers who want to upgrade their
skills.
- CNA/vm