ADDRESS BY THE CHIEF JUSTICE MR JUSTICE WEE CHONG JIN

• Date: 01 December 1990
• Citation: (1990) 2 SAcLJ 149
• Published date: 01 December 1990

The Honourable The Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mrs Lee, Members of the Senate and Members of the Academy,

We are gathered here today in these historical and impressive surroundings for a very special occasion. Today marks the Official Opening of the Singapore Academy of Law and will go down in the annals of our history as a milestone in the development of the law and the legal profession in Singapore.

The Academy of Law was established by the Singapore Academy of Law Act which was passed by Parliament on llth August 1988 and came into force on 1st November 1988. The functions of the Academy are spelt out in section 4 of the Act and include the following:

1. (1) promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct and learning of the legal profession in Singapore;

2. (2) advancing and disseminating knowledge of the laws and promoting research and scholarship;

3. (3) providing continuing legal education; and promoting good relations and social interaction amongst members and with law students and persons concerned in the administration of law and justice in Singapore.

As can be seen, this Academy has a very wide and ambitious brief and it will require considerable vision and commitment of all its members for these goals to be achieved. The Academy is the first institution in this part of the world which gathers together the various branches of the legal profession in a country. These branches can be conveniently classified as the Judiciary, the private practitioners, the Government Legal Service, the corporate lawyers and the academics in the tertiary institutions.

For a long time in Singapore these branches have developed separately. Although as individuals, members of one branch do interact with members of the other branches, and do share their experiences and expertise, there was no single institution which could gather together the sum total of their collective experiences and expertise in the law. Neither was there any institution to facilitate social and professional interaction between members of these branches of the profession.

The Academy of Law fills this void. As an institution, the Academy will provide a focus where all persons involved in the study, practice or administration of the law in Singapore can gather to enrich and enhance the knowledge and the development of the law in Singapore through the sharing of experience and expertise. It will also, in accordance with its brief, enable an orderly induction of new...