National University of Singapore Faculty of Law

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The slope leading up to Bukit Timah campus. Pictured is part of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. The law school offers a concurrent degree in Law & Public Policy.

View of the law school

The Eu Tong Sen building and Block "B"

Inside Block "B": the corridors of the law school

The faculty has an extensive exchange program with many law schools around the world, such as the University of Toronto.

NUS law school has won the Jessup Cup a record four times, more than any other law school in the competition's history.

Martyrmachiavellian, a Re:productions short film in 2004

The National University of Singapore Faculty of Law is the law school of the National University of Singapore (NUS), and one of the two law schools in Singapore. The law school was first established as a Department of Law in the then University of Malaya in 1956. The first law students were admitted to the Bukit Timah campus of the University the following year. In 1977, the faculty shifted to the Kent Ridge campus, but in 2006, it has since relocated back to the Bukit Timah site. Its current dean is Tan Cheng Han.^[1]

[edit] History

Dr Lionel Astor Sheridan was appointed as the first Head of the Law Department at the then University of Malaya in July 1956.^[2] The Department attained Faculty status in 1959 and Sheridan was appointed its first dean, while the pioneer batch of 22 law students graduated on 10 July 1961.^[2]

In the formative years of the law school, alumni were called upon to provide leadership and expertise to the law school as it slowly expanded. Grants were also secured to increase the number of books in the law library, and students were sent to international mooting competitions as part of the legal education.^[2] The latter was particularly important in putting Singapore on the world map in legal education. By the early 1990s, student exchange programmes with leading schools were established as well.^[2] As such, over the years, with the help of grants, donations and help from its own alumni in both teaching and leadership positions, the law school grew from strength to strength and is today recognised as a respected institution for providing quality legal education.^[3][4][5]

[edit] Present

The Faculty of Law is now staffed by a permanent faculty with law degrees from more than a dozen jurisdictions, in line with its aim of being "Asia's Global Law School".^[6]

Students are required to take compulsory modules in the first two years, and are allowed to take elective modules in the final two years, including cross-faculty modules. Electives include Asian legal studies, banking and finance, biomedical law, commercial law, comparative law, corporate law, criminal law, intellectual property, international law, jurisprudence, legal process and skills, public law, and transportation law. Students also enjoy access to online legal databases such as Westlaw, Lexis Nexis and HeinOnline,^[7] as well as one of the largest and most comprehensive law libraries in the region, the CJ Koh Law Library.^[5]

[edit] Programs

[edit] Degrees offered

Apart from the traditional LL.B. which runs for four years, the law school also offers double honours degrees in Business Administration & Law,^[8] Economics & Law,^[9] Law & Life Sciences,^[10] and a concurrent degree program in Law & Public Policy.^[11]

Students who have a prior degree from another discipline may qualify for the Graduate LL.B. Program, and will obtain their LL.B. in three years instead of four.^[12]

In 2006, the faculty created a dual degree program with the New York University School of Law called NYU@NUS.^[13] This program will allow students to earn Master of Laws LL.M. degrees from both institutions. In 2007, the two universities launched another joint dual degree program, where students will be able to obtain LL.B. from NUS and an LL.M. from NYU in just four years.^[14] This is believed to be an unprecedented program.^[14]

[edit] Exchange program

The student exchange program was initiated in the early 1990s.

The law school now has an extensive exchange program with dozens of law schools all over the world, such as Columbia University, New York University, Duke University, University of Toronto, University College London, McGill University, National Law School of India University, Washington University, University of British Columbia, Australian National University, University of Sydney, University of Queensland, University of Auckland, Beijing University, Tsinghua University, University of Hong Kong, University of Copenhagen, Tilburg University, University of Nottingham and Kyushu University.^[15] This student exchange program is made possible by the Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) or exchange agreements between NUS and its partner universities on an equal basis.

Students go on exchange in their third year and approximately a third of each cohort participate in the program. Most exchange stints span two academic semesters, and students going on exchange pay tuition fees and other related fees at the NUS rate, thus avoiding paying the often higher fees of the host institutions.^[16]

[edit] International mooting competitions

The faculty has enjoyed success in international mooting competitions, emerging champions in competitions such as the Philip C. Jessup Cup,^[17] the Manfred Lachs Space law Moot Competition,^[18] the Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot,^[19] the Oxford International Intellectual Property Mooting Competition,^[20] the International Maritime Law Arbitration Moot Competition,^[21] and the Asia Cup International Law Moot Competition.^[22]

[edit] Research, publications and institutes

The faculty is responsible for the publication of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies,^[23] as well as the Singapore Yearbook of International Law.^[24]

The faculty also has several affiliated institutes and centres. They are the Asian Law Institute,^[25] the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law,^[26] the Centre for Commercial Law Studies,^[27] and the Asian Society of International Law.^[28]

[edit] Student-run activities

The faculty has a number of student-run clubs as well as longstanding yearly traditions organised by the students and staff.

[edit] Events

The Christmas Charity is a yearly tradition, which mainly involves the second-year students. Underprivileged children from children's homes are invited to have a day of games planned by the students. The children are also entertained by a carol concert and receive Christmas presents at the end of the program. Each child is usually accompanied by one to two students.

Law IV is also a yearly original musical/theatrical production, of which the cast and crew comprise entirely of members of the graduating class. Proceeds from ticket sales go to charities adopted by the graduating class. The 2007 production, Kopi Shop Rock, is set in 1970s Singapore and revolves around the struggles of two families from rival coffeeshops facing a constant threat from gangsters.

[edit] Clubs

The cast of And I Choose, the 2006 Law IV musical

There are almost a dozen sub-clubs with varied interests, such as the Mooting and Debating Club (MDC), the Singapore Law Review (SLR), the Re:productions club which dabbles in film-making, ACTUS! (theatre), the law annual team, the LSIRC (law students' international relations), and pro bono.

The sub-clubs regularly organise competitions, symposia, and talks for students of the law school to participate in, such as the Mallal Moots, the Singapore Law Review writing competition, the Advocacy Cup, and the MDC-LSIRC debates.

The Law Club is generally responsible for overseeing and planning most of the school-wide activities of the law school, while the Freshmen Orientation Central Committee is tasked with organising and raising funds for the orientation programs for freshmen.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• NUS Law Home