Falling standards in media ethics has been a global and alarming phenomenon. One particular trend is to treat sex scandals as info-tainment for the masses and to boost sales. In 2001 and 2002, the Chu Mei Feng scandal in Taiwan and the Carina Lau Kar Ling incident in Hong Kong shocked the Chinese community. Privacy issues and obscenity laws were immediately invoked and many called for tighter control of the press. Careful analysis, however, will reveal that legal regulations are inherently limited and unable to grant adequate protection to victims. Ironically, in both cases, the protagonists got their ultimate revenge not through the court but by waging a war against the media through the media. This paper therefore argues that unless there is an alteration of the gender bias in society, tighter legal regulations of the press will only sacrifice press freedom without helping the victims.

The construction of the rule of law in China has become an international concern. This article discusses the impact of WTO accession on China's legal reform in the context of the rule of law jurisprudence. It discusses the "thin"/"thick" theories of the rule of law, arguing that the Lon Fuller's "thin" theory of the rule of law is a suitable model in the Chinese context. It sees that the "thin" version creates possibilities for the realization of any "thick" theories of the rule of law, including a liberal democratic version, albeit a sudden jump to this "thick" version is neither pragmatic nor even possible. China's urgent task at this stage is to build the requisite institutions to facilitate the establishment of a "thin" rule of law. Compliance with WTO obligations can directly help achieve this goal in terms of transparency, impartial application of laws, and judicial review.

Transnational crime must be seen as a by-product of globalization. The same technological means which integrate the world's markets are used in the commission of crimes that have global effects. The need for the evolution of common rules and procedures to combat them is now coming to be recognized through the formulation of conventions and treaties containing common rules and strategies. These international standards have to be translated into domestic law, thus giving rise in the criminal law systems of states to a distinct body of crimes that are not dependent on the morality or the security of that state alone but on the concerns of other states and the global community as a whole. This would necessarily create a new limb in every criminal law system. The development of this new limb of the domestic criminal law will increasingly be dictated by events outside the state. This article is an effort at detailing the parameters of this new limb and at outlining the course of its possible future development.

In June 2003, the government adopted the Declaration on Religious Harmony as part of a multi-pronged strategy to address the problem of aggravated ethnic-religious relations, heightened after the discovered of the bomb plot masterminded by Jemaah Islamiah, a group affiliated with Al Qaeda. This instrument belongs to a corpus of 'constitutional soft law', a set of precepts embodied in a text lacking legal status which exerts some degree of legal impact and influences the shaping of state-society relations. Such informal standards shed light on the politico-legal culture, process values of participatory democracy and the practical workings of institutional restraints on public power and governance. This article examples the role of these informal standards within the context of a written constitution, with a particular focus on the Declaration-whose principles have implications for the scope and practice of religious liberty in Singapore, a secular state with a religious society.

This article analyses the approach taken by Singapore's criminal and family laws when a child is taken away by one parent without consent of the other parent to another jurisdiction. International efforts to ameliorate the difficulties faced by the left-behind parent in tracing the whereabouts of the child and obtaining his or her return come in the form of the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Although Singapore is not a party to the Convention, signs of its acceptance in spirit can be seen in a recently decided case. It is argued however, that accepting the Convention is not enough on its own, and a thorough review of Singapore's criminal and family laws, which have hitherto developed separately, is needed to ensure that they speak with one voice and accord children the protection that they deserve

Several cases involving claims for wrongful conception or wrongful birth have come before the English and Australian courts in recent years. The decisions in these cases have not been consistent and the law has been left in a state of some uncertainty. This article discusses the cases and considers the direction which the law in this area might be expected to take in future.

Deemed "the first severe and readily transmissible new disease to emerge in the 21st century", Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ('SARS') took the world by shock. Originating from Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China in mid-November 2002, the disease spread to some 30 countries within a matter of weeks. By August 2003, the World Health Organisation had reported 8422 cases of confirmed SARS, of which 916 resulted in death of the patient. This article examines the legislative changes the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China government implemented in its fight to contain the disease, regional initiatives taken, and the border control measures adopted by the Hong Kong Government in order to prevent the transmission of SARS. Finally, the article discusses the effectiveness of such measures and provides recommendations in the anticipation of another SARS or SARS-like epidemic.

The European Union Data Protection Directive requires member states to place restrictions on transfers of personal data to countries that cannot guarantee an adequate level of data protection. Countries that do guarantee adequate protection enjoy a smooth business environment and an enhanced ability to participate in trade. In this paper I examine the adequacy of Singapore's data protection regime, and in particular the Model Data Protection Code. I suggest various amendments to the regime to enable Singapore to meet the Directive requirements. To carry out the assessment, I use a framework developed by the Article 29 Working Party, the body that in practice carries out the official adequacy assessments for the EU.