In criminal cases, it has been emphasised repeatedly that our Court of Appeal is a creature of statute and is hence only seised of the jurisdiction that has been conferred upon it by the relevant provisions in the legislation creating it. This has resulted in the Court of Appeal steadfastly refusing to reopen criminal cases already disposed of finally by way of appeal. However, in the arena of civil cases, the Court of Appeal possesses an inherent jurisdiction, which it uses to achieve a variety of results. Given that the inherent jurisdiction of the Court flows (arguably) not from the nature of cases it is hearing but the status of the Court itself, this article poses the question as to whether the distinction of the Court's inherent jurisdiction across criminal and civil cases is necessarily a sound one, and seeks to provide a possible answer.

This article traces the enactment of the Women's Charter in 1961 to the goal of national construction pursued by the People's Action Party upon winning the 1959 General Elections. The statute introduced a unitary monogamous law for non-Muslim Singaporeans and, by legislating the equality of the wife with the husband, played a crucial role in Singapore's economic progress by encouraging fuller economic participation of women. The article then discusses the contributions of section 46 - modelled after a Swiss provision - which exhorts husband and wife to co-operate for their mutual benefit as well as to care for their children within the spouses' equal partnership of different efforts that marriage is. This exhortation places marriage firmly on a moral foundation. The moral message helps explain the remarkable developments within several areas of the family law in Singapore including the nature of the spousal relationship, parental responsibility to their children and the equitable division of matrimonial assets.