Steering Committee for Singapore's Third Law School

27 NOV 2013

27 Nov 2013 Posted in Press releases

  1. The Ministry of Law (MinLaw) today announced the formation of a Steering Committee to guide the development of Singapore’s third law school in UniSIM. It includes highly experienced legal professionals from the private and public sectors and will be chaired by Senior Minister of State for Education and Law, Ms Indranee Rajah.

  2. The 12-member committee (see Annex A) will provide strategic direction for the school including matters such as the educational philosophy, admissions criteria and curriculum development.

  3. The committee will be supported by a Curriculum Working Group (see Annex B), who will make recommendations on the development of the curricular framework.

  4. Chairman of the UniSIM Law School Steering Committee, Ms Indranee Rajah, said, “The third law school will seek to provide a strong foundation in all core law subjects, such as contract law, company law, tort law, property law and trusts law, while developing specialist expertise in family and criminal law. A strong emphasis on multi-disciplinary and applied learning will be another unique feature of this school.”

  5. Ms Rajah added that “The new law school is an excellent, practical implementation of ‘Learning for Life’, where learning never stops and never ends. It will provide another new pathway to learning, and will allow people to achieve new career heights by leveraging on relevant past experience.”

  6. Work experience by way of industry attachments and exposure to pro bono efforts will be an integral part of the course. The new school will work closely with practitioners and the legal service providers to ensure that students are provided with quality student externships.

  7. The curriculum is expected to include the study of complementary subjects, such as psychology, accounting and forensics, and cover both the domestic and international aspects of family and criminal law.

  8. The UniSIM Law School intends to focus on attracting students with the appropriate aptitude and disposition such as those with relevant working experience and maturity to handle the emotional aspects of family and criminal law practice, with a heart and passion to serve the community.

Background

  1. The 4th Committee on the Supply of Lawyers, chaired by Justice VK Rajah had observed that there is at present a shortage of lawyers who service the needs of the community in the areas of family and criminal law. Consequently, one of the 4th Committee’s recommendations submitted to the Government in May 2013 [1] was to establish a new law school, with a focus on training prospective lawyers who are keen to practise in these specialised areas of the law.
  1. MinLaw, together with the Ministry of Education, studied the proposal for the third law school. Minister for Education, Mr Heng Swee Kiat, announced on 16 October 2013 that the new law school will be in UniSIM.

[1] Other key recommendations are outlined in the 28 May 2013 MinLaw press release which responded to the 4th Committee on the Supply of Lawyers.

ANNEX A - Composition of the UniSIM Law School Steering Committee (0.02MB)
ANNEX B - Composition of the UniSIM Law School Curriculum Working Group (0.02MB)

Last updated on 27 Nov 2013