SINGAPORE Law and Practice Contributed by: Foo Yuet Min, Kong Man Er, Shumin Lin and See Chern Yang, Drew & Napier LLC
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System The Singapore legal system is based on common law for areas such as contract, equity, trusts and tort law. Statutes have been enacted for areas such as criminal, company and family law. Judges apply the ratio decidendi (the operative reasons) of decisions of higher courts. Court of Appeal judgments are strictly binding on the High Court, District Court and Magistrates’ Court, whereas English and other Common- wealth decisions are persuasive but not binding. The doctrine of “horizontal stare decisis” (where courts at the same level in the judicial hierar- chy are bound by each other’s decisions) is not applicable. However, a court would be hesitant to depart from a line of previous decisions. The legal system is adversarial and conducted through both written and oral advocacy. 1.2 Court System The Singapore court system comprises the Supreme Court, State Courts and Family Jus- tice Courts. Supreme Court The Supreme Court consists of the Court of Appeal, High Court (General Division and Appel- late Division) and Singapore International Com- mercial Court (SICC). The Court of Appeal hears criminal appeals and prescribed categories of civil appeals from the decisions of the General Division of the High Court, and is the court of final appeal. Court of Appeal hearings usually feature three judges.
The High Court exercises original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases. • The General Division of the High Court hears civil cases where the claim exceeds SGD250,000, probate matters if the estate exceeds SGD5 million (or if the case involves the resealing of a foreign grant), admiralty matters, insolvency matters, applications for the admission of advocates and solicitors, and family proceedings involving assets of SGD5 million or more. • The General Division of the High Court tries criminal cases where the offences are pun- ishable by death or with imprisonment terms exceeding ten years. The General Division of the High Court also hears points of law in special cases submitted by a District Court or Magistrates’ Court. The General Division of the High Court can reverse State Courts’ decisions, or direct a State Court to conduct a new trial. • The Appellate Division of the High Court hears civil appeals that are not allocated to the Court of Appeal under the Sixth Schedule of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1969 (SCJA). The SICC is an international division of the Supreme Court with specialist local and interna- tional judges. It hears transnational commercial disputes. State Courts The State Courts consist of the District Courts, the Magistrates’ Courts, the Coroners’ Courts, the Small Claims Tribunals and the Employment Claims Tribunals. Magistrates’ Courts may deal with civil claims of up to SGD60,000 and any criminal offence for which the maximum term of imprisonment does not exceed five years or that is punishable with a fine only. District Courts
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