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