Law Society president says Singapore lawyers apathetic about public law
By Loh Chee Kong, TODAY | Posted: 18 March 2008 1120 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Singapore lawyers are apathetic about issues of public law, says the man who is three months into his role leading the legal fraternity.

So, in his first big move since becoming Law Society president, Mr Michael Hwang has persuaded its council members to set up a high-powered committee to "promote greater awareness of public and international law".

One of its first projects: To study the extent the Universal Declaration of Human Rights applies as law in Singapore.

Mr Hwang, a Senior Counsel, believes the time has come for lawyers to look at how public and private international law, which range from international treaties Singapore has signed to commercial arbitration, apply here.

In a message to lawyers, he cited how Hong Kong's Equal Opportunities Commission successfully sued its Ministry of Education, which had given boys two credit points for secondary school admission to make up for their lack of development compared to girls.
"Are our administrative agencies and statutory tribunals really fairer than those in our neighbouring countries? Or, is it simply that our practitioners are not seeing constitutional and administrative law issues that are embedded in the problems that come before their eyes?" wrote Mr Hwang in the latest issue of Law Gazette, the society's monthly publication.

TODAY understands that the new committee, chaired by Dr Thio Su Mien, former dean of the National University of Singapore law faculty, and comprising Senior Counsels Sundaresh Menon, K S Rajah, Peter Low and Cavindar Bull, held its first meeting last week and there are tentative plans for public lectures in April and May.

When contacted, Mr Hwang told TODAY: "The committee will study human rights, but in the context of legal principles. It will cover rights granted under the Singapore law, as well as rights that are granted by international law, to the extent that it is received in Singapore."

The issue of civil liberties is one that his predecessor, Senior Counsel Philip Jeyaretnam has said the society should have more freedom to comment about, subject to the caveat that whatever it says should have "a reasonable consensus of the profession".

Lawyer Chia Boon Teck, for one, believes the authorities are "more receptive to objective feedback and constructive criticisms" and is impressed with the committee's line-up of "highly-respectable practitioners".

But human rights activist M Ravi who was one of three lawyers to petition to the society during International Human Rights Day last year to conduct human rights training for lawyers criticised the composition of the "long overdue" committee as "elitist and pro-establishment".

But the society is still looking for more members, "especially younger practitioners". Mr Hwang said: "What we did was to set up the committee with a good selection of the best people we can find. But I didn't want to fill up the remaining places just yet; the appointed members may know people I don't know."

On the issues raised in the petition, he said he had replied comprehensively and added: "They asked why we don't support the establishment of a human rights commission. That has nothing to do with us. A human rights commission is for the Government to set up." - TODAY/ar