The debate over whether the doctrine of lawful act duress exists has been settled in the affirmative by the UK Supreme Court in Times Travel (UK) Ltd v Pakistan International Airlines Corpn . However, the elements by which one establishes lawful act duress was the subject of disagreement between Lord Hodge (who delivered the majority judgment) and Lord Burrows. The disagreement stems from how illegitimate pressure should be constructed. Should illegitimate pressure be ascertained from all the circumstances—without the necessity for a more detailed analytical structure? Or given the lawful nature of the threat, should one focus on what renders the demand unjustified, and require proof of a bad faith demand and conduct which created or increased the victim's vulnerability? We examine the debate over the existence of the doctrine, how it should be analysed, and how the answers are impacted by the existence of other legal controls over bargaining power and the value placed on the freedom of contract.

Debates about the law, regulation, and governance of robots, artificial intelligence ("AI"), and machine learning have been dominated by voices from North America, Europe, and Australia. While Singapore has hosted conferences at which these matters have been discussed, and while it is clearly an interested party in relation to these debates, a distinctively Singaporean voice has yet to be heard—or, at any rate, it had not been heard prior to the publication of Simon Chesterman's stimulating book.

Thai Legal History: From Traditional to Modern Law (the "Book") serves as an excellent academic tool for a reader desiring to a gain a deeper understanding of the constitutional status and roles of the King of Thailand, impacts of coups d'état on the Thai legal system, influence of foreign laws on moderation of the legal system, Buddhism, and legal consciousness in a modernised Thai legal system. As a law lecturer and legal researcher, I found that this Book, as highlighted by Andrew Harding in Chapter 1, meticulously reveals the origin and evolution of laws and concepts beyond written law in the pre-modern time—the old Siam—and later.

"Sustainability" is very much on the world's agenda today. At the recently-held 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties, Sir David Attenborough warned that the stability of the Earth's climate, which had for millennia enabled human civilisation to flourish, is being seriously threatened by human activity in recent times. It is more urgent than ever that humanity must, in Sir Attenborough's words, "rewrite our story to turn this tragedy into a triumph". The notion of "sustainability", however, is not strictly confined to climate or environmental issues. Embedded in most definitions of sustainability are concerns for social equity and economic development. And in this latter regard, the world has had to grapple with the COVID-19 Pandemic, which has profoundly impacted human life on earth over the last two years. As the United Nations ("UN") noted, "[the Pandemic] is much more than a health crisis. It is a human, economic and social crisis. The coronavirus disease … is attacking societies at their core" (UN Sustainable Development Group, Shared Responsibility, Global Solidarity: Responding to the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 ).

In the opening of the Legal Year 2020, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon emphasised the continual imperative to build a justice system that better meets society's justice needs. He laid out the context (at para 41 of his Response): "These enduring problems are a legacy of a justice process that was conceived in a different era and which was founded on a philosophical preference for argument and adjudication as primary methods of dispute resolution. That model of justice is increasingly straining to meet the needs of modern society – one which is evolving faster than ever before; inhabits both the online and offline worlds; faces increasing socio-economic stratification; and confronts a polarised world more prone to conflict and division than peace and multilateralism".

The United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods is a remarkably successful example of uniform law in the private sector. It is confined to commercial sale transactions with the requisite international element, but the question is whether it is a suitable instrument for all types of international sale on a one-size-fits-all basis. In the commodity trades (the examples given here are oil, grain and soya transactions), there has been a resolute resistance to the Convention, as the standard form contracts routinely exclude the Convention. This article explains why certain provisions of the Convention may not be suitable for commodity sales but, more importantly, points to the dominant position of English law in these trades, together with a large bank of precedents giving certainty and predictability to transactions that often take on the character of market-driven, speculative financial dealings.

This article analyses the current state of the law and policy in Singapore on surrogacy, assisted reproduction technology ("ART"), and adoption in light of the ministerial statements after UKM v Attorney-General . Of particular and pressing concern is situations where overseas surrogacy and ART leave a child fatherless or motherless for life. Analysing this in light of various factors, including the fragmentation or elimination of the various aspects of parenthood, the principle of putting the child's welfare and best interests as the first and paramount consideration (including a child's right to both a father and mother), public policy and social science, it will be argued that this form of surrogacy and ART should be urgently prohibited.Abrief survey of how other countries have approached such issues will be conducted. Various recommendations for law reform will also be proposed.

In 2019, a new definition for strict liability was introduced to the Penal Code as part of the historic Criminal Law Reform Act . Since this provision, section 26H, was designed to clarify the law, this article explores whether it can achieve that goal. By examining the intellectual history and recent judicial practice of strict liability in Singapore, I argue that section 26H succeeds in entrenching the "formal" or "elemental" approach to the concept. This is an advancement over the legal thought of the pre-reform era, in which the compatibility of strict liability with the Penal Code was widely doubted. However, the usefulness of section 26H to the statutory interpretation of specific offences is questionable. Indeed, section 26H must itself be interpreted carefully, or the law may become dangerously unstable. This illustrates the elusiveness of legal clarity and the limits of criminal law reform via codification.

Can a lender take a security interest over an orbiting satellite? This article addresses this question under the laws of Australia, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, and Singapore. The results of this comparative inquiry highlight the legal challenges that reduce the attractiveness of satellite security interests and, as a corollary, the prospects for asset-based satellite financing. More generally, this inquiry indicates the need for space-focused law reform across the region, given the technical and commercial changes underway in the current 'NewSpace' era.

The appropriate choice of law rule for the formation of a contract is an intractable question. Various solutions have been offered, with none enjoying universal approval. In Solomon Lew v Kaikhushru Shiavax Nargolwala , the Singapore Court of Appeal held in favour of the application of a nuanced version of the putative proper law of a contract. It further held that that there was no role for the lex fori in resolving this classic conflict of laws conundrum. While the SGCA emphasised that the reasonable expectations of the parties would be accommodated through its approach, this note argues that this would not necessarily be the case and that the SGCA was too quick to discount a role for the lex fori .