The legal system of Singapore is based on the British common law system, with some modifications and enhancements to suit Singapore's unique needs and circumstances. The legal system is founded on the Constitution of Singapore, which is the supreme law of the land.
There is a two-tiered court system, consisting of the Supreme Court and the Subordinate Courts. The Supreme Court comprises the Court of Appeal and the High Court, while the Subordinate Courts include the State Courts and the Community Justice and Tribunals Division.
In addition to the common law system, Singapore has implemented several specialized courts to address specific areas of law. These include the Family Justice Courts, the Syariah Court for Muslim law matters, and the Intellectual Property Court.
The Parliament of Singapore
The Former Supreme Court Building
The Supreme Court of Singapore
Please be reminded that cases or judgments are not indexed in FIND@HKUL. To look for full text cases, you will have to search in relevant legal databases, or search by the full title of a law report in FIND@HKUL with "Books+" search scope.
Alternatively, you may change to Advance Search and enter the following search term for all available law reports within the HKUL Collection:
SLR was originally published by the Singapore Government Printer in 1950-1957, law library holds the series below in its collection:
Singapore Law Reports [SLR]
Published with authority of the Singapore Academy of Law, serving as the official law-reporting agency in Singapore, cases are selected with importance for Singapore’s jurisprudence. Headnote, summaries of cases with catchwords, a summary of facts and holdings and list of cases and legislations being referred to in the judgment could be found.
Singapore Academy of Law Annual Review of Singapore Cases [SAL Ann Rev]
This title is an annual digest that encloses and evaluates selected cases of the Singapore courts in the previous year. Comments and analysis by leading practitioners and reputable academics are also contributed to the title.
The Singapore Judiciary serves to uphold legal justice and accessibility of the law in the country. The institution consists of three major courts – The Supreme Court, State Courts and Family Justice Courts. You may obtain judgments and related documents via the official website - https://www.judiciary.gov.sg/judgmentments.
Sustained by the Legislation Division, Attorney-General's Chambers of Singapore, this platform offers public free access to latest and historical versions of legislations; bills published in Acts, Subsidiary Legislation and Bills Supplements of the Singapore Government Gazette; and repealed/ spent legislations. The earliest document available can be dated back to 1998. Legislation and bills prior to 1998 are not fully available, depends on availability of digital records.
The Singapore Government Gazette includes the main volume Gazette, Supplements to Bills, Acts, Subsidiary Legislation, Industrial Relations and Treaties and statues. Other than the most current materials, documents back to 1998 are archived and available for access.
The Parliament of Singapore acts as a major role in making laws for the country. You may find records of Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Bills introduced, Votes and Proceedings, and other official reports made under the institution. Most of the documents can be traced back to 1955, until the present.
The Official Report contains speeches and debates made in the Parliament Chamber. Records of proceedings and discussion can be traced back to 1955, when the Parliament was known as Legislative Assembly at that time.
Papers Presented to Parliament Series
Documented by the National Archives of Singapore, this Series involves records formally presented to the Parliament by the Government, in inflecting the Government’s activities and aid for decision-making. These papers include: Command Paper, Parliamentary Paper, Statutory Paper, Subsidiary Legislation Paper, Presidential Council Paper, and Miscellaneous Paper, from 1955 to the present.
You can also make use of the National Archive of Singapore for locating Government Records of the country. For more information, please click here to visit.
The Legislation Division, Attorney-General's Chambers of Singapore
Serves as Singapore’s central law drafting office, the Legislation Division is responsible for drafting legislation on behalf of implementation of government policies and public programmes. Annual Reports and Law Reform Reports of recent years can be found via this website.
Supported by the Singapore Academy of Law, the Singapore Law Watch provides free daily legal news service for the community. Unreported decisions can also be located here. Please note that court judgments from 2000 and onwards are archived on the platform permanently.
Asian Legal Information Institute (AsianLII)
Serving to promote free access to law and legal information for the community, AsianLII offers a consolidated platform of databases, catalogues and web-searches on Singapore’s legal system and materials.