Close to a thousand laws have been passed in Singapore over the past 25 years - the result, Senior Minister K Shanmugam said, of a deliberate choice: that law reform should be led by Government rather than left to evolve case by case. Speaking at the launch of 25 Years of Legal Reform in Singapore: Innovations in Policy and Law (2000-2025), he noted, "In Singapore, changes to the law, law reform - the Government does it."
The launch, held at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, was officiated by Senior Minister Mr Shanmugam and Minister for Law Edwin Tong SC, with Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong as guest-of-honour. Around 200 guests from the legal industry attended, including the volume editors and contributors.
The four-volume book series document some of the legislative and legal reforms the Ministry of Law has undertaken over the past quarter-century that have shaped the nation. Behind the project is SMU Professor of Law Yip Man, who served as its Managing Editor. Professor Yip is concurrently the V3 Group Professor in Family Entrepreneurship at SMU’s Yong Pung How School of Law (YPHSL).
Published by the Ministry of Law to commemorate SGLaw200, marking 200 years of legal development in Singapore, the series brings together policymakers, judges, legal practitioners, academics and sector experts to examine not only what changed, but the thinking, trade-offs and collaboration behind those changes.
Its four volumes cover Criminal, Public and Family Law; Civil Justice, Restructuring and Insolvency, and Intellectual Property; International Dispute Resolution; and Legal Innovations and the COVID-19 Crisis.
A record of a changing Singapore
In his speech, Senior Minister Lee placed the reforms within a broader process of national development.
"It is a continuous undertaking. Each generation must review the system it has inherited, decide what remains fit for purpose, update or repeal those parts which are outdated, and design and pass new laws to deal with new circumstances," he said.
The observation also captures the purpose of the series. Rather than presenting legislation as a collection of finished statutes, the books examine the decisions and competing considerations that preceded them.
For Professor Yip, preserving that process was one of the central challenges the team faced.
"Reform projects are collaborative and progressive in nature, involving stakeholders and experts working together and civil society providing feedback from the ground.
“We did not want the complexity and structure of the process of reform to be flattened or lost. Therefore, a hallmark feature of the series is that each reform project is told through multiple perspectives. We spotlight on the process and not simply the outcome," said Professor Yip.
When circumstances change
Senior Minister Shanmugam, who was Law Minister from 2008 to 2025, noted that close to 1,000 laws were passed over the past 25 years as the Government reformed legislation to address real-world problems, make difficult choices and advance the public interest.
For Professor Yip, the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 illustrates the pressures that can drive such reform. Passed within nine days of its conception, it introduced, among other measures, a temporary moratorium on legal and enforcement actions for parties unable to perform contractual obligations because of COVID-19.
"I research in private law, including contract law," she said. "This intervention was exceptional because it was contrary to the fundamental principle of sanctity of contract, the foundation of our contract law.
“But it also shows us that in times of crisis, there is a need for the law to be flexible and to recalibrate the balance between safeguarding private rights and obligations and protecting the whole society from greater harm."
From national record to future reformers
For SMU, the series has significance beyond its role as an account of Singapore’s legal history: it will also enter the classroom.
"Teaching and this series are, at heart, the same enterprise: helping people see not just what the law is, but why it is what it is," said Professor Yip.
"So yes, the chapters will find their way into my classroom, and I suspect into many others... students will be able to appreciate the options that were weighed, the trade-offs made, as well as the ideas that worked and those that did not.
“This will train them to think like law reformers. I have no doubt that some of them will be involved in the meaningful work of law reform in the future."
This gives the series a role beyond just documenting the past. At SMU, the record of previous reforms can become a resource for examining how future legal changes should be considered, debated and designed.
Professor Yip hopes the books will reach beyond the legal profession, from judges and policymakers seeking "a deep study of our law reform reasoning and process" to "foreign legal jurists" seeking comparative insights.
But she also has the ordinary reader in mind: "The law is not remote, it is part of the lived experiences of ordinary citizens – from protecting the vulnerable to helping business capture new economic opportunities," she said.
"I would like a reader to close a chapter and think: ‘A team of people had thought hard about the problem from different angles, and I now see how they thought and planned the change in the law.’"
That may be the series’ most lasting contribution. It records how Singapore responded when circumstances demanded new answers, while giving the next generation an opportunity to consider how those decisions were made.
As Senior Minister Lee observed at the launch, every generation inherits a legal system. Its responsibility is to create what comes next.
See also: Telling Singapore's law reform story, in a new book series
