The Jurisdiction to Reopen Criminal Cases: A Consideration of the (Criminal) Statutory and Inherent Jurisdiction of the Singapore Court of Appeal

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

12-2008

Abstract

In criminal cases, it has been emphasised repeatedly that our Court of Appeal is a creature of statute and is hence only seised of the jurisdiction that has been conferred upon it by the relevant provisions in the legislation creating it. This has resulted in the Court of Appeal steadfastly refusing to reopen criminal cases already disposed of finally by way of appeal. However, in the arena of civil cases, the Court of Appeal possesses an inherent jurisdiction, which it uses to achieve a variety of results. Given that the inherent jurisdiction of the Court flows (arguably) not from the nature of cases it is hearing but the status of the Court itself, this article poses the question as to whether the distinction of the Court's inherent jurisdiction across criminal and civil cases is necessarily a sound one, and seeks to provide a possible answer.

Keywords

Criminal Law, provisions, jurisdiction, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Criminal Law | Jurisdiction

Publication

Singapore Journal of Legal Studies

Volume

2008

First Page

395

Last Page

419

ISSN

0218-2173

Publisher

National University of Singapore

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS