Locating Singapore Cases with Lawnet and locating Singapore legislation and subsidiary legislation

1. Accessing Reliable Legal Resources
for LGST101 Business Law
Yuyun W. Ishak, Business Research Librarian
2016

2. You will learn how to locate…
• Singapore Case Law using LawNet
• UK Case Law using LawNet
• Singapore Legislation using Singapore
Statutes Online

3. Table of Cases

4. Case Law
What is Case Law?
Written record of the courts’ decisions

5. Case Name
Consists of the names of the parties involved
Civil Case
Chwee Kin Keong v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd.
Criminal Case
Public Prosecutor v PDM International Pte Ltd
The case name alone is often not enough. There is no indication of
the date, where it was reported, or which case in particular is being
referred to (there may be more than one case)

6. Reported Case Citations
The citation tells us that the case may be found
in vol 2 of the Singapore Law Reports (Reissue)
for 2004, starting on page 594.
Year Reporter PgVolume
[2004] 2 SLR (R) 594

7. Exercise 1 – SG Case
Chwee Kin Keong and others v Digilandmall.com Pte Ltd
[2004] 2 SLR(R) 594

8. LawNet – by party’s name

9. LawNet – by party’s name

10. LawNet – by citation

11. LawNet – by citation

12. LawNet – view case

13. Neutral Citations
Gay Choon Ing v Loh Sze Ti Terence Peter
[2009] SGCA 3

14. Neutral Citations
[2005] SGCA 3
Year of decision Court Sequential Number
The citation above tells us that this was the
2nd case in 2005 in the Singapore Court of Appeal.
Singapore Neutral Citations:
SGCA – Court of appeal
SGDC – District Court
SGFC – Family Court
SGHC – High Court
SGJC – Juvenile Court
SGMC – Magistrates Court
SGSC – Supreme Court
SGSCT – Small Claims
TribunalThis is a system of citation where each written
judgment from a particular level of court is assigned
a sequential number, starting from 1 at the
beginning of each calendar year.

15. Exercise 2 – SG Case
Gay Choon Ing v Loh Sze Ti Terence Peter
[2009] SGCA 3

16. LawNet – by party’s name

17. LawNet – by party’s name

18. LawNet – verify

19. LawNet – by citation

20. LawNet – by citation

21. English Cases
Page v Smith
[1996] 1 A.C. 155

22. The Law Reports
List of Titles in the Law Reports series
The Law Reports are published by The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales

23. Exercise 3 – English Case
Page v Smith
[1996] 1 A.C. 155

24. LawNet – by party’s name

25. LawNet - verify

26. LawNet – by citation

27. LawNet – missed punctuation

28. LawNet – by citation

29. Legislation
Singapore Legislation

30. Table of Singapore Legislation

31. Singapore Laws
• Statutes /Acts
– Over 500 statutes/acts listed under “current acts” in LawNet
– Each Act is given it’s own chapter number. (‘cap’ for short)
• E.g. Companies Act, Cap 50
• Subsidiary Legislation
– While Acts deal with broad legal principles, Subsidiary Legislation
deals with details such as procedures, admin matters, technical
standards, etc.
• E.g. Companies (Application of Bankruptcy Act Provisions) Regulations,
Cap 50, Section 411

32. Locating Singapore Legislation
• Available through LawNet
• Available on Statutes Online through
Attorney-General’s Chambers website
(http://statutes.agc.gov.sg)

33. Exercise 4 – SG Legislation
Sale of Food (Food Establishments) Regulations Cap
283, Regulation 5
Contract (Rights of Third Parties) Act (Cap 53B)

34. Contact Library
library@smu.edu.sg
Phone: 6828 0355